The Princess that Never Was
by PSVT
Summary: The world seems to be abandoning and turning its back on the Princess of the Moon. She decides to fight to regain lost love and friendship as best she can, growing in ways never imagined, but is it enough? And what of the fate of the earth and the moon?
1. One Last Chance

**Chapter 1: One Last Chance**

_*Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzt_*

Tsukino Usagi could feel the buzzing in her pocket as the communicator went off yet again. She immediately knew who it was that was calling her and why, but she felt compelled to answer it anyway, if only to humor the person on the other side of the link. And at this point in time, the person on the other side of the link needed humoring.

"Usagi? Where the hell are you? We've been fighting this… this _thing_ for the past twenty minutes and you still haven't shown up?" The fiery voice was that of Sailor Mars, who in less combative times would be known as Hino Rei. A sharp bang then emerged from the speaker, followed by a brief moment of static.

"Rei-chan, I'm running… as fast… as I can… but you know how… difficult it is to…"

Her response fell off short, replaced by heavy panting from the miles of running she had done. Exactly what was difficult for her to do was not elaborated on much further, as by that time Rei, much annoyed by Usagi's absence in the ongoing battle and her sudden brush with a sudden and untimely end, interrupted rather testily.

"I don't care, dammit! Just get your butt here _now_!" The communicator then went silent.

Usagi ran for what seemed to her to be another ten miles, but what was in reality only about a few hundred yards before she reached Juuban Park. She saw Rei pointing with her arms outstretched and hands held together, her red skirt torn in many places, legs and arms badly scratched, and raven colored hair disheveled. To an ordinary person, it would then appear that Rei was firing an invisible flamethrower, but to Rei it was one of her attacks as Sailor Mars, something she called "Fire Soul." The target of her attack was a being that vaguely resembled a Venus fly trap that was twice her size and had vine-like legs that allowed it to run. Near the top of the plant-like creature was a trio of reddish-brown mouths, each mouth full of sharp fangs, connected to the main body by thick green stalks. Atop each mouth seemed to be a pair of deep crimson eyes and extruding from the three fanged mouths were three brown, vine-like tongues. Ensnared within the three tongues were three girls. They were wearing white leotards adorned by colored skirts and bows, which by this time was torn and scratched in every way imaginable. Usagi immediately recognized those three girls as her friends Mizuno Ami, Aino Minako, and Kino Makoto, who currently were in the forms of Sailor Mercury, Sailor Venus, and Sailor Jupiter. They were also in great peril, as Rei's flame attack did nothing to release the three girls from the grasp of this enormous walking plant.

Despite being winded from all the running, Usagi grasped the large, gold circular brooch that was clipped to the bow of her blue and white sailor-style school uniform. Yelling the words "Moon Prism Power, make up," her pedestrian clothing disappeared in a flash of light to be replaced by dozens of pink ribbons that enveloped her body. The ribbons then gave way to a complicated and yet ornate uniform, one perfectly suited for the fighter known as Sailor Moon.

Well, not much of a fighter, really, compared to her friends. She usually just ran around avoiding attacks until her friends could weaken the opponent enough for her to use her finishing attacks. In the cases where she could not avoid being hit or incapacitated, she usually was rescued by her friends or by… him, Tuxedo Kamen, otherwise known as her boyfriend Chiba Mamoru or, in another time, her husband-to-be Prince Endymion. Someone she hadn't seen in the past few days. But she tried not to let that concern her as she reached up to her head and removed her tiara. Shouting "Moon Tiara Action," the tiara transformed into a glowing disc that she then threw with all her might toward the plant-like enemy that was slowly pulling her friends closer toward its mouths and to their demise. The disc turned toward the tongues that were wrapped around the girls and sliced through them, freeing the girls one by one, before returning to Usagi's hand. The girl in orange then reached toward her waist and, seemingly from nowhere, produced a long, shimmering orange chain of energy that she held in both hands. She then whipped one end of the chain, which by this time had grown ten times longer, toward her former captor, temporarily stunning it.

"Usagi, do it _now_!" That frantic shout came from the girl wearing green. Despite being on the scene for only two minutes, Usagi had been through enough battles to know what was being asked of her. It was time to finish off the enemy.

A short pink wand tipped by a large, gold crescent moon materialized in her right hand. A small, flower-shaped crystal was attached to the bottom portion of the crescent.

"Moon Healing Escalation!" she yelled. She first held up the wand upwards, and then slowly moved it downward in a sweeping circular motion front of her. At the end of the circle, the crystal suspended in the wand emitted a blinding white light, followed by several white balls of energy that slammed into the walking, three-mouthed plant monster, which soon disintegrated into a pile of sand-colored dust. Usagi then turned toward the group of girls who preceded her in battling the former monster and began to speak.

"Sorry for being late, but I—"

"Sorry? _Sorry_? You _did_ hear us calling for you for the last twenty minutes, right?" Rei's normally violet eyes seemed to turn red with intense anger.

"Yes, but—"

"And did you even _attempt_ to show up in a timely fashion to try to help us?"

"Well, you see, I—"

"And assuming that you _did_ even try to show up on time, which obviously you didn't, you probably wouldn't have even been all that useful anyway. We'd all would have to risk ourselves even more to rescue you as well as deal with this monster."

Rei practically was glowing from the fury that was exploding from within her. Usagi was trying her best to explain her situation, to rationalize why she was late. She was quite used to the verbal assault from Rei, which she often received for various reasons. It was just in the girl's nature. What was spoken next, however, shook Usagi unlike anything Rei, or anyone else for that matter, had ever said to her previously.

"It's almost like you don't even care to actually _fight_ with us! You just show up whenever you want, do your thing, and go off like you actually were, you know, _effective_! You're fat, lazy, klutzy, slow, stupid, completely irresponsible and totally unqualified to be our leader!" Rei looked down for a moment to catch her breath. "I don't even know why we bother having you around anymore!" Her burning eyes then locked directly on Usagi's face before delivering her final blow. "I wish you would just go away and never bother us again!"

"Rei-chan…" Normally, Usagi would retort and the whole argument would devolve into a tongue-wagging battle. But she could feel that Rei was serious about not having her as the _de facto_ leader of the senshi. No, not just that. It felt that Rei didn't even want to be around her at all—she did not want to be her _friend_ anymore.

"I'm sorry Usagi, but I have to say that I'm beginning to agree with Rei." Ami spoke in a voice that was at her typical low volume but was far more callous than any Usagi could remember.

With tears swelling in her eyes, Usagi looked around at the other girls, who all slowly nodded their heads in agreement with Rei and Ami. She became very pale at the sight and the thought of the girls turning their backs on her. While sinking to the ground and staring at the brown soil, she gave one last desperate plea.

"Please! Please! Rei-chan, Ami-chan, Minako-chan, Mako-chan. Please give me one last chance. I don't want our friendship to end! I'll do better, I'll fight harder, I'll be on time, I promise!" She was bawling by that point.

The miserable display incensed Rei and, as a result, she was not even remotely willing to acquiesce as she reached for Usagi with the desire to slap the blonde across the face. She would have done exactly that had Makoto not restrained her. Minako thought for a few seconds, a brief look of anguish on her face that quickly disappeared before she looked toward Usagi.

"We'll give you one last chance. But remember, it's your only chance. If you screw up, you're done being our leader. Do you understand me?" Minako asked with a combination of empathy for Usagi's sadness but determination and, yes, even a fair bit of anger.

"Absolutely," Usagi said, barely, between sobs.

"It's getting pretty dark. I think it's about time that we went home, guys," Ami stated rather briskly. In separate flashes of light the four girls undid their transformations, turned toward the path leading out of Juuban Park, and started walking away. None of the girls looked back toward Usagi, who was still sitting on the ground, illuminated only by the few lamps from the nearby walkway, muddying the earth around her with her tears. As if in a show of sympathy with her current plight, the sky soon opened up and released its own tears.


	2. Love Lost

**Chapter 2: Love Lost**

After sitting alone in the park for several minutes, Usagi finally found the strength to lift herself from the ground and onto her feet. She stumbled toward one of the oak benches along the stone-paved walking path, her vision still blurred by tears and the rain, and sat, pulling her knees up to her chest. Her mind was racing. She was on the precipice of losing her closest friends. She didn't know how her relationships with the other girls deteriorated to such a low point so suddenly, culminating with Rei's caustic words. Not Ami, not Makoto, not Minako, none of them spoke a single word in her defense. And where was Mamoru? Seemingly like magic, he would appear in her moments of peril to rescue her, or in desolate times like what she currently endured he would be around to comfort her. However, she hadn't seen or heard from him in several days. All attempts at communication—dozens of phone calls and a multitude of emails and text messages—went unanswered. She had become extremely worried. Was Mamoru in danger? Had he been captured by the evil Queen Beryl and her equally evil henchmen, the Shitennou, and was that the reason he suddenly was absent?

Here, her mind returned to the girls she hoped she could still call friends. She realized that over the past several days the girls seemed more distant than usual toward her. They would still gather together after school at Crown Arcade and Fruit Parlor, but they would talk amongst each other more and exclude her from their conversations unless she essentially barged her way in. It felt like, even then, they were starting to abhor her presence. What happened?

However, her mind once again pondered Mamoru's state. She decided that she would go track down Mamoru, to see if he was okay, and that the best place to start would be his apartment. She typically didn't visit his apartment on her own, preferring to meet with Mamoru in more open locations. Though she was Serenity and he Endymion, she still was only fourteen years old, after all, and her parents would not have approved her being alone in the apartment of a nineteen-year-old man. That night was an exception. She didn't care how late in the evening it was, or how worried her parents must have been at her absence. She needed to see Mamoru. She needed to see Mamoru _now_.

Usagi bolted upward from the park bench. Her school uniform was soaking wet from the rain and her long blond pigtails were a tangled mess, but none of that mattered to her. She was on a mission.

She reached the apartment complex where Mamoru lived about fifteen minutes later. His apartment was on the fifth floor, which normally compelled Usagi to take the relatively slow elevator in the main lobby. However, due to her extraordinary circumstances, she decided on taking the stairs. She bounded up the steps two-at-a-time, her passion and determination overcoming the fatigue settling within her legs. She exited the staircase and turned left into the hallway. Mamoru's apartment was on the other side of the building. That was no matter, as in seconds she had reached Apartment 502.

_Bang! Bang! Bang!_ Usagi pounded furiously on the door.

"Hold on, hold on, I'm coming!" Mamoru shouted as he walked from his kitchen, oblivious to the identity of the person on the other side of the barrier. He grasped the round handle and pulled the door open.

"Hello… Usagi?" Mamoru stared perplexedly at the blonde standing across the threshold. "What are you doing here?"

"What?" His response left her quite dumbfounded. Her Mamoru was standing right there in front of her, in his apartment, which obviously meant he was not in any danger after all. However, the tone his voiced carried when asking the previous question sounded rather cold and detached for someone who she thought considered her his girlfriend. He was rarely ever that frigid towards her—maybe when they first met, when they were bitter enemies, but never since. She quickly regrouped and replied to his question.

"I was out looking for you. I haven't seen you or heard from you in forever, it seems. Did you not get any of my calls?"

He thought for a bit. Yes, he did receive her phone calls, and her text messages, and emails, and chat requests—every single one that she had sent over the past week and a half. He wasn't fully prepared to tell the girl what he was about to say next, but he knew that there was no better, or worse, opportunity than at that abrupt juncture.

"Yes, I did receive them."

She was plunged even deeper into confusion. "A-and?"

"Usagi, I think we need to talk." He looked back into the apartment, as if looking for someone's approval, before he stepped outside into the hallway, closing the door behind him.

"Can't I come inside?" After receiving little more than a shake of his head in reply, butterflies began to flutter madly within her stomach. Her apprehension arose from not knowing exactly what he was thinking or about to say, yet feeling that whatever it was it wasn't going to be very good. He began to speak, and she slowly began to realize just how awful it truly was.

"Usagi," he said, speaking softly while simultaneously trying to organize his thoughts. "I don't think we should see each other anymore."

Her heart practically stopped as soon as those words hit her hears. Tears began to stream down her cheeks as she looked up at Mamoru in despair. There were so many questions she wanted to ask at that point about what made Mamoru want to break up with her, but the only thing she could force through her lips at that time was the simple question: "Why?"

"It's just… It's just that I've gotten tired. Tired of having to rescue you so many times, having to put myself in mortal danger only to see you—almost willingly, it seems—put yourself right back in the exact same position." His tone progressively became harsher. "I've grown tired of your silly antics and your complete lack of maturity in just about everything. But, mainly, I've become tired of pretending. I know that we—me as Endymion and you as Serenity—were destined to be husband and wife in the past, but that was then. It seemed to be my duty to be with you now, but the person you were then, the person I loved then, is not the person you are now."

She was completely devastated by that point, and it showed in her uncontrollable sobbing, but he did not seem to be affected as he concluded telling her the thoughts and feelings that were mounting within him for some time.

"I may have wanted to be with you at some time in this life. I may even have loved you. But now, to be honest, I really just can't stand being around you anymore. I—" his pause seemed to last forever— "I don't love you."

"Mamo-chan…" That was all she could manage.

"I don't ever want to see you anymore. Don't come here, or call me ever again. Now, please leave."

With that, he turned, opened the door, and returned to his apartment, never looking back as the door closed on Usagi one last time. The slight murmur of a conversation involving an unknown but familiar-sounding girl could be heard through the door, but she didn't notice. Her crying drowned out all other sounds.


	3. Phoenix

**Chapter 3: Phoenix**

The full weight of everything that had transpired that night crushed the poor girl physically and spiritually. It took what felt to her an eternity just to build the strength to leave Mamoru's apartment complex. She returned home just before midnight, her muddied school uniform soaked by the rain and her tears. Her parents and younger brother were already asleep when she returned and did not awaken when she trudged through the front door and up the stairs to her bedroom. The mattress sank with a soft _whoosh_ as Usagi fell onto her bed, not caring to remove the wet uniform. The bed was her sanctuary, the place where she could think and cry in peaceful solace. Sadness overflowed her at that point. Everyone was leaving her, the man who used to be her boyfriend, the girls who might no longer be her friends, and she had no clue, not the slightest inkling, why it was happening to her. Her face sank into her wet pillow and, within moments, the physical and mental exhaustion finally overcame her and she fell into a deep sleep.

—|1|**2**|3|—

The next morning was particularly dreary, and it did not help the blonde's emotional state one bit. Heavy clouds hung in the sky, the sun's usual light and warmth unable to penetrate this deep gray barrier. She was still wearing her school uniform when she lifted her head from the pillow and turned to look at the alarm clock on her nightstand. It read 9:50 AM. It was also a Wednesday, which meant that it was a school day and that she was late. But none of that mattered to her as she didn't wish to attend anyway. She definitely did not want to risk running into Ami or Makoto, who attended the same school. Not right now. She needed the time alone to sort her thoughts. Suddenly, she felt very warm, and it was at that instant she realized that a thick blanket was covering her. She couldn't recall covering herself with anything. Also, she felt a weight at the end of her bed, a weight that suddenly began talking.

"Ah, it seems you're awake now. I've been trying to get you to wake up all morning to get you ready for school, to no avail. I figured you were in one of your typical dreamy slumbers, oblivious to the world, 'til I came in your room and saw you like this."

"Ugh… mama." She focused her eyes and saw that the mass sitting at the end of her bed was her mom, Ikuko. That also explained the mysterious appearance of the blanket. She tried to lift herself up but she felt so dizzy that she collapsed back down into her pillow.

"Don't stress yourself, dear. Your mom is with you." That calm and soothing voice was the best thing Usagi had heard in the past day.

"I don't think I feel well enough to go to school today."

"I know, I know. I'm sure you can have one day free from classes. Now, open up and say AHHHH." She placed a thermometer into the dismal girl's mouth. After a minute, she pulled the device out and looked at the screen, her anxiety clearly evident in her face.

"Hmm, you seem to have a bit of a fever, but nothing too terrible." Ikuko paused for a moment, looking her daughter over carefully. "My main concern is why you were out so late last night, out in that storm, and if anything bad happened to you that we should definitely know about."

Usagi looked toward her mother. She wanted to tell her everything. Not just about what happened regarding her friends or how her ex-boyfriend _née_ husband-to-be abandoned her. She wanted to reveal her secret of being Sailor Moon. She wanted to tell the whole story and end the deceit. However, she reasoned that as long as there was a chance that she could prove herself worthy to her fellow senshi and regain their trust and friendship, she should at least maintain that secret. So, for the moment, she decided it was best to reveal as little as possible.

"Mamoru and I had a fight last night, after I got back from school. It wasn't anything really serious though. I was upset for a while, but now I'm fine." She knew it was an understatement, to say the least, and she sensed that her mom wasn't completely buying her story. However, if so, the woman wasn't going to press the subject too much.

"I hope all is fine between you two. If there is anything you really need to talk about, I'm always here for you. Remember that," Ikuko said while placing a loving hand on Usagi's shoulder. "Now, let's get you out of these dirty clothes."

—|1|2|**3**|—

Usagi returned to school the next day, though she didn't feel much better than she did the previous day. She sat in her usual seat near the middle of the room. Two rows behind her and against the windows to her left sat Ami. The blonde glanced toward the blue-haired senshi, who upon noticing this decided to look away. In happier times, a smile would have been returned instead. She turned back toward the front of the room and laid her head in her arms. It was going to be a very rough day, she surmised.

Sakurada Haruna, her homeroom and English class teacher for Grade 7, entered the room carrying a stack of papers to be handed out to the students and other assorted teaching supplies. It was time for English lessons, and for this the students would group together into pairs for conversation. Usagi's heart sank at the notion. Normally, she would pair with Ami or Osaka Naru, but Naru was away with her mother on an extended business trip and thus absent for the majority of the semester, and Ami at this time was not an option. Given that there were an odd number of students in the class, it was probable that she would end up having to pair with "Sakurada-sensei," as she was called.

"Okay class, we're going to be studying the following English conversational phrases as listed on your handouts. You may get together in pairs now."

Usagi looked around the room for someone with whom she possibly could pair, but by then everyone else had found a partner.

"Tsukino-san, it looks like you'll be partnering with me." The girl in question turned her head forward and saw Haruna standing right in front of her desk. "Now, come with me to my desk."

Usagi slowly pushed herself up from her desk and dragged herself to the front of the classroom. She detested having to do the lesson with Haruna, as it typically meant that she was given a lot more homework to do, or an after-class punishment, or both, for her inevitable poor performance. However, as she was walking up to the front, she remembered the haranguing she had received from Rei the prior night. She then remembered that she was given one last chance to prove herself worthy by Minako. At that point, the warrior of love and justice decided she was not going to waste any opportunity she had, no matter how insignificant or unrelated it may appear, to improve her standing with the group. Confidence began to fill her soul.

That was, until she saw the first sentence she had to say on the handout. Then, she wished she had paid more attention to her classes earlier in the semester. She barely mumbled the words.

"A bit louder please, Tsukino-san," Haruna said in a stern voice, just knowing that her less-than-apt pupil was about to say the first sentence incorrectly.

The pigtailed blonde closed her eyes and searched her mind as thoroughly as she could and as quickly as she could. She thought—no, _believed_—that she knew the answer. She then opened her eyes and spoke, clearly and forcefully, the Latin characters printed on the paper in front of her: "Thank you for inviting me to your party."

There was a short and slightly awkward period of silence before Haruna could respond to Usagi's questioning gaze. It was mainly so that she could recover from her overwhelming astonishment.

"V-very well done, Tsukino-san," she said, drawing a smile in return.

In all honesty, she had expected the girl to fail, but Usagi defied expectations by saying the words perfectly. The girl continued to do so for the forty minutes that the pair continued with their English conversation, consistently impressing Haruna with her performance. As a result, the teacher was thrilled that she didn't have to punish the girl for the first time all semester. Was Usagi finally becoming a decent student?

The bell rang at 11:30, signifying that it was time for lunch. Normally, Usagi would join the other girls outside for lunch, with Rei and Minako leaving their respective schools to join them. Makoto would prepare a wonderful spread that would disappear almost immediately between the two blondes who would battle for the larger share. Over the past two weeks, Usagi's relationship with the other girls had been strained at best. Now, with yesterday's ultimatum, she felt that she absolutely wanted to avoid any sort of awkward situation and decided to let the other girls alone.

Further, she wasn't very hungry, which was extremely unusual given her voracious appetite. She hadn't eaten dinner at all last night, picked through breakfast, and now was unlikely to finish the boxed lunch her mom prepared her. She was more preoccupied on her new mission of improving herself in all possible ways so she could regain the girls' fellowship. The words Rei said to her, those hateful words that initially made her so depressed, now were to be words of motivation, inspiring her self-improvement. She may have lost Mamoru, she figured, but there was no way she would lose those girls.

The rest of the day went by rather quickly. For the first time, she was able to leave school at the actual end of the day. She ran straight home, not stopping at the Crown Arcade and Fruit Parlor, her usual hangout for the evening. She figured the other girls would be there and she wanted to avoid encountering them before she felt she was ready. She reached the front door and bolted inside, startling her mom who was not expecting her to arrive until much later.

"Hi mom! I'm home!" Usagi said as she entered.

"Already? Why so early?" Ikuko replied with a bit of shock.

"I just wanted to get an early start on my homework."

"Don't you usually go to meet with your friends now?"

"Well…" She paused for a few moments, contemplating her next words. "We all were a bit busy doing other things today, Ami with her cram school and the others with their assignments, so we decided it'd be best not to meet today."

She ran up the stairs to her bedroom, escaping any potential further questioning from her mother. When she got there she found Luna sitting there on her bed. The girl froze in her tracks upon seeing the black cat. She had not seen her advisor since Tuesday morning.

"Luna!" Usagi said in a muffled yell. She felt a small knot begin to form in her stomach, as she didn't know whether the feline felt the same way about her as the other girls. If so, it was not going to be a pleasant evening.

"Usagi, how are you feeling?" Luna asked. Her voice was a just above a whisper.

"What?" The blonde was surprised not so much by the question but the tone.

"I saw what happened to you two nights ago. I left from here to help the other girls in battle after they called out on the communicator. Of course, there wasn't much that I could do since I'm a cat, so I just stayed back and observed."

"And so you know…" She was feeling more than a bit apprehensive.

"Yes, I heard everything they said."

"And…" Tears started to well in her eyes. "Do you agree with them?"

"Well…" Luna was searching for words. "I, um, do think they make, uh, good points." She was quick to follow up with her next sentence before upsetting her charge any more than she sensed she was doing. "But, I believe you'll be able to come around, and I'll help in any way I can."

"Really?" Usagi asked with a slight hint of hope evident within her otherwise woefully melancholy voice.

"Absolutely. It is my mission, and it is also my desire, to assist my princess in any way possible."

"Thank you, Luna!" Tears streamed from her eyes as she grasped the black cat and hugged it tightly against her chest. Suddenly, she felt something repeatedly kicking her in her midsection, and she remembered that she was practically smothering Luna. She let go and Luna leaped away onto the bed, gasping for air.

"Sorry, Luna!"

"That's… okay…. Now… what… are we going… to do with you." Luna said in between breaths. She pondered the course of action she needed to take to train Usagi further.

"Well, first I need to get my homework done while it's still early, then we'll see what we'll do after that."

Luna was shocked after hearing that. It was something that she'd never heard the girl say before. Normally, the statements were something along the lines of "Do I have to?" or "I hate this! This is boring!" followed by Usagi falling asleep or being totally distracted by video games or television or anything else that wasn't her homework. This newfound sense of responsibility in her young princess greatly pleased her.

"All by yourself you decided to do your homework! Well, it seems you're already well on your way on being a better soldier."

"Yep!" Usagi's tears had just started to subside, and a smile came to her lips in their stead.

The pigtailed blonde spent the next three hours completing her homework. Math was especially difficult for her, but she struggled through it and, with some help from Luna, was able to at least come up with an answer for each problem. The other courses, English and history, were easier by comparison. Intriguingly, she neither whined nor complained, which was an act that stunned the feline but also encouraged her. She put her pen down after she finished answering the last homework problem and looked over at the clock in the corner of the room. It was 7:30, about the time she normally would return home from Crown or visit Mamoru for a short date. Mamoru. She folded her arms on her desk in front of her and laid her head down onto them, letting a small sigh slip out in the process. A tear started to fall. She missed him. She dearly missed his warm touch and his quips and being called 'odango-atama.' What happened for all of that to disappear? However, about as quickly as she let her mind wander she refocused her thoughts to the task at hand.

"Usagi?"

"Yes, Luna?" Usagi lifted her head from the desk.

"I think I have just the plan to help you with your training."

"Really?"

"You know how in Crown we have the game machine that links to the Silver Millennium?"

"Ugh, Crown? Do we have to? And wasn't it really just Artemis hiding, pretending to be a machine talking to the Silver Millennium?" She had no intentions of going back there so long as she and the other girls were on such bad terms.

"Yes, that did end up just being Artemis, that silly cat," Luna said, deliberately muffling her voice for the last part. "I know you don't want to go back to Crown under such circumstances, but that's where our special training machine is located."

"Special training machine?" Usagi was curious, as Luna had never mentioned such a device.

"Well, it's actually an entire room, where we can make any sort of situation we want. We can create youmas to fight if necessary. It's completely secret, even to Motoki-kun." the cat replied, referring to Motoki Furuhata, who ran the arcade and, importantly, was a high-school classmate and friend to Mamoru. If Motoki was oblivious to the existence of the room, then so was Mamoru.

"Do the other girls know about the room?"

"Well, I haven't told them about it, and I'm sure Artemis hasn't had a need to tell them about it either, so I doubt they know."

"Good. When do we begin?"

"Tomorrow. Immediately after school. It's a Friday, so you don't have to worry about doing your homework until later that day or Saturday."

Usagi nodded at Luna and gave a bit of a smile. Her eyes glowed brilliantly as she was filled with confidence and determination.

"Luna, I will do my best. I promise."


	4. Her Full Potential

**Chapter 4: Her Full Potential**

Usagi arrived at school early the next day, without rushing at the last second like she usually did. She did not sleep at all during class, and she paid as much attention as she could during each class, even taking notes in some of them. Never before had she demonstrated such intense focus. In many ways, it was a bit scary how focused the girl was on schoolwork compared to her previous self, or even the other students. With any more focus, she would be as bad as Ami.

Immediately after hearing the bell signifying the end of classes, she ran through the front entrance gate and toward the main street. She saw the other girls standing beneath a nearby tree, and as she approached she sensed their lively conversation come to an abrupt end. She shuddered as two pairs of eyes, one pair intense violet and the other deep-ocean blue, locked onto her figure. However, she was not about to let that distract her as she had one goal: to get to Crown Arcade and begin her training, preferably before the others left for the attached fruit parlor so she could train in secret.

She arrived at the arcade five minutes later. Her shoulder bag shook slightly as Luna poked her head outside for some air and to tell her charge where she needed to go in order to find the secret room. Usagi spotted Motoki wiping down some of the arcade units in a distant corner of the room and gave him a pleasant smile and wave. Motoki returned the smile and wave and walked over to the pigtailed blonde. He had seen the other girls quite frequently but hadn't seen her in a few days and was curious about her well-being. Luna froze and sank deeply into the bag as Motoki walked toward them, pretending to be a stuffed animal.

"Hi, Usagi-chan! I haven't seen you in a while. Is everything alright with you?" Although his features were generally pleasant, his steady gaze that met her eyes immediately revealed his profound concern.

"Hi. Yeah, I've been… busy for a few days with school and stuff, so I haven't had the time to play games." It was a partially honest answer, and she delivered it forcefully enough to assuage the unassuming young man for the time being.

"Well, I'm happy that you're paying more attention with your schoolwork and all. Don't be so focused on school that you forget your friends."

Her eyes lit up. The entire point of her intense focus and training was exactly about her friends, though not to avoid forgetting them but so that they wouldn't abandon her. "Don't worry, I haven't," she replied. "Now I gotta go up to the fruit parlor. I'll see you later."

He nodded and, with one last grin, went back to cleaning while she walked toward the stairs that led to Crown Fruit Parlor. However, she didn't go up the steps but around them to a back room. She opened her bag and poked Luna, rousing the black cat out of its disguise.

"This is the place?" she whispered with confusion in her voice.

"Yes. Now come on, go in," Luna demanded.

Usagi opened the door and slowly walked into the closet, carefully closing the door behind her so as not to make any sound. It was completely dark and dank, and it seemed like it hadn't been used in years, not even for storage. She felt along the wall for a light switch but couldn't find one.

"Luna…" She was starting to get scared.

"Don't be afraid, Usagi. Just believe in yourself and you will find the room."

Usagi nodded then closed her eyes. About fifteen seconds later she felt a warm wind envelop her. The room began to light up a bright gold color and expand to many times its original size. When she reopened her eyes, she saw she was in a room that appeared to be light blue, almost white in color and very, very bright. It seemed that there were no walls around her for as far as she could see. She then heard a disembodied voice bellow out from above.

"Usagi, welcome to the special training room." The voice belonged to Luna, who was in a special control room invisible to the girl.

"Wow! This is amazing! But, it's all empty."

"That's because I haven't entered an environment yet."

"An environment?" Usagi walked around, looking in all directions in the vast expanse of nothingness.

"Yes. You need an environment loaded in order to actually do anything, for any of this to be meaningful. For example, I'm going to enter a forest environment."

The room started to brightly glow white, so bright that Usagi had to shield her eyes with her arms as her eyelids were horribly insufficient. When she uncovered them, she was stunned to be standing in the middle of a lush, lively, green forest. She heard birds chirping and squirrels ruffling through the foliage around her feet and in the trees. She looked up and saw a bright blue and cloudless sky. Her skirt fluttered about her and goose pimples appeared her arms and legs as a brisk breeze hit her. She walked toward one of the trees and extended an arm to touch it, not knowing what to expect. It was surprisingly solid, much like a real tree. No, it _was_ a real tree. A loose leaf fell on her head, lightly tickling her scalp.

"What do you think?" the feline asked somewhat smugly.

"It's incredible!"

"Usagi, we are going to begin your training now. You're not going to do any fighting today, just basic training exercises. I'm going to change to a different environment." The room began to fill with light when Luna's voice sounded from the sky once more. "Oh, and I'd recommend that you transform right about now."

"Right!" She held her transformation brooch in the air, yelled her magic words, and in a flash of pink light transformed into Sailor Moon. When her transformation ended, she saw that the universe around her had dramatically changed. It had become excruciatingly hot, bright, and dry. She couldn't see a living thing no matter which way she looked. She was standing in what appeared to be rocky, hilly desert. Five prominent hills surrounded her, each one about fifty feet tall and foreboding with many rock outcroppings. On top of each hill was a pale rose-colored ball resting within a stone chalice. The hills themselves were about one hundred yards away in front, behind, and beside her, making the points of a star with her in the center.

"Usagi, I want you to bring the pink balls you see down from the hills to where you're currently standing," her advisor commanded from afar.

"Well, that sounds pretty easy."

"And you only have five minutes to do this. If you fail, you have to start again from the beginning."

"_What?_" She was not nearly as confident at that moment as she was a few seconds prior.

"Starting now." Almost as an afterthought, Luna added: "And don't damage any of the balls. That will cause the test to restart as well."

Usagi bolted to the hill in front of her and started climbing. It was much steeper than she thought, and soon she had to effectively crawl up the hill on her hands and knees. She yelled in agony every time her hands or knees hit a pointy rock, but she willed herself up to the top of the hill. There she found the ball within the chalice. She tried to lift the ball but found that it was much more solid and heavier than she expected. It was a glowing pink and translucent sphere of eighteen inches in diameter with a perfectly smooth, glass-like exterior that weighed about thirty pounds. This was the object that she had to bring down the hill in one piece. She lifted the ball to her chest with one arm and decided, despite how painful it appeared it would be with all the rocks, to slowly slide down the hill. She reached the bottom of the hill with scratches all over her thighs, back, and hands, but the ball was intact. She ran as quickly as she could back to the center of the star and gently placed the ball on the ground. As soon as it touched the ground it vaporized in a flash of light and reappeared at the top of the hill.

"What the hell?" she exclaimed, as her hard work seemed to be for naught. Luna's voice then boomed from the sky to deliver the bad news.

"Usagi, do you have any idea how long that took you?" the cat asked, slightly annoyed.

The pigtailed blonde had not been keeping track of time—not that she could have anyway, as there were no clocks or anything. Nevertheless, she had no answer.

"I could have had you move all five balls down, but I figured that, at ten minutes apiece, it would have taken you way too long and you look like you're pretty banged-up anyway. So I decided to be nice and stop the exercise now."

"_Ten minutes?_" It seemed beyond reason to her that it took that long just to move one of the balls. How could she have ever moved all five at one minute apiece?

"The reason it took you ten minutes to retrieve one ball is because you were thinking and behaving like Tsukino Usagi and not like Sailor Moon. Remember that you have far more power as a senshi than you possess as a normal girl."

"Well, what am I supposed to do?"

"That's something you're supposed to figure out on your own."

Usagi closed her eyes and tried to concentrate. What could she do? A soft gold halo of light began to envelop her. She sensed that she knew what she needed to do, at which moment she opened her eyes.

"Usagi, are you ready for your second attempt?"

"Luna, I'm ready."

She sprinted toward the hill in front of her and charged up it. Unlike the first time, when she had to crawl on hands and knees to ascend the hill, she was able to remain upright while mounting the hill in a series of skilled jumps. She reached the summit, lifted the glowing sphere above her head, and then jumped down the hill as adroitly as she climbed it. Once she reached the center of the star that was drawn by the quintet of hills, she gently set the ball down and sprinted directly to the next hill down the line. She continued this for the next four spheres, and upon setting the last sphere down, she sighed and looked up to the sky as if looking for Luna. The cat's voice boomed from the sky.

"Very good, Usagi. Now, let's do it again."

"What? Why?" The girl was absolutely dumbfounded, and rightfully so as far as she was concerned. _"Didn't I do it well enough this time?"_ she asked herself.

"You did it much quicker, at five minutes and three seconds. However, the target was five minutes."

"Luna…"

"Usagi, are you whining?"

"No…" The princess—despite feeling nothing like one at the moment—closed her eyes and began to concentrate for a third round of training. The glow surrounding her seemed much brighter than before.

"Alright, ready?" Luna asked. The blonde nodded in reply.

She repeated the test for the third time, effectively bounding up the hills even more quickly than the second, and ultimately finished well within five minutes. She did it in four minutes and five seconds, to be exact. Luna was extremely happy at the achievement.

"Excellent job Usagi!"

"Thanks, Luna!" She was thrilled that she was able to succeed in this test. She doubted that she would have been motivated enough to complete such a rigorous and physical exam in previous days or weeks. However, now, she loved the sense accomplishment. Luna had her charge repeat the test a few more times, and each time the girl was able to complete it easily, with the time decreasing ultimately to three minutes and twenty-five seconds.

"You're doing very well, Usagi. Now, I have one last test for you."

"What is it?"

"I want you to collect all five spheres in under twenty seconds."

"_What?_"

Her dismay was understandable, for she had run as quickly as her body, in the guise of Sailor Moon, could move her, and her best time was just under three-and-a-half minutes. Luna's request effectively would have required her to teleport, which was something she could not do. At least, it was impossible without the aid of the other senshi, none of whom she wanted to be around, nor did they desire her presence.

"Remember, Usagi, you are Sailor Moon."

She nodded slowly and went into her deepest mode of concentration yet. Suddenly, she opened her eyes and let out a slight gasp, knowing exactly what she needed to do.

"Are you ready, Usagi?"

"Absolutely."

The instant the final challenge began, she reached up and grabbed the tiara from her forehead and held it in her hand, turning it into a small glowing gold disc. Unlike in her previous fights with various youmas, she didn't immediately throw the disc but instead closed her eyes and fell in to a trance. The disc initially held a golden radiance, but the longer Usagi was fixed in her contemplative reverie the larger it grew in size, and the glow soon changed in color to a mixture of pink and white. She then opened her eyes, yelled "Moon Tiara Action," and threw the glowing disc as hard as she could toward the top of the hill in front of her. It raced toward the apex of the hill and the targeted sphere, slamming right into it. But, instead of shattering, the sphere became physically attached to the disc. The gleaming mass then turned toward the next hill and the next, collecting the remaining orbs along the way. When the disc returned to her hand, the spheres detached from the tiara and slowly dropped to the ground, each of them completely intact. Luna's disembodied voice resonated from the sky once again.

"I am impressed, Usagi! I actually didn't expect you to complete this last test on the first try, but you did!" She paused briefly. "Amazing! Just nineteen seconds!"

Usagi beamed. "I didn't know I could even do something like that."

"Well, your tiara is actually more powerful than you expect, but it's also more useful than as a mere weapon of destruction. You should already know this. Remember when you used the tiara to heal all the people Jadeite brainwashed?" The pigtailed blonde nodded as she swiftly recalled that particular incident. "This is just another way you can use your tiara. Your Moon Stick is even stronger. All you need to do is work very hard to realize the full potential of your power."

Usagi sat on the ground, feeling exhausted from expending so much energy. "Then I'll be able to prove that I am not weak, that I can fight on my own and don't need to be protected all the time," she said. The desert soon disappeared to be replaced by the empty expanse that initially greeted her when she first entered the room.

"I think you're ready to start the next phase of training."

"You mean where I actually start fighting things?"

"Yep! Any sort of enemy the Dark Kingdom has thrown at us, and many others the Silver Millennium had encountered from battles in its more distant past, are all saved here and can be simulated in the training room."

"Cool." She looked around in confusion before turning her gaze downward. "Um… Luna?"

"Yes?"

"What time is it?"

"Ah." There were a few seconds of silence, presumably as her advisor searched for a clock. "Just past six-thirty."

Usagi sat with a pensive look on her face, her eyes steadfastly locked on a single point on the floor. Luna realized her princess was extremely anxious about something.

"What's wrong, Usagi?"

"I'm just wondering how I'm going to get out of here." That was a pretty big problem, given that the room extended infinitely in all directions except down as far as she could tell.

"Oh, that's easy. All you have to do is flip the switch on the wall behind you, then walk out the door."

"What?" Usagi looked behind her. Plainly evident was a giant wall that she swore was not there a few seconds earlier. Attached to that wall was a door, which she assumed either lead to the outside and the real world or to wherever Luna was located, and beside the door to the right was an ordinary light switch.

"Okay, that's strange," she said upon seeing the wall. "You did that, right?"

"Yes. At the end of the training session the room returns to its normal size and the exit door appears."

Usagi looked around and saw that the room was much smaller than before, so that she could actually walk toward and touch all four walls. So, her first question was pretty easily answered, but she still was obviously apprehensive about something else.

"Luna, do you know if the other girls are still there?" Her voice wavered. "I don't want them knowing about this place."

Luna brought up a screen on one of the monitors on her control panel. It was connected to the surveillance system of the arcade and fruit parlor. She looked through the various camera views and saw that the girls were congregated at the fruit parlor upstairs. They did not appear to be leaving anytime soon.

"Yes, they're here, but they're upstairs, so we're safe."

"Good." A bright light enveloped the senshi of the moon as she removed her transformation and returned to wearing her school uniform. The injuries she had attained from her first attempt at the test were healed with no scarring or other marks on her skin. She collected her shoulder bag, which was lying on the ground beside her and walked toward the door. She gave one last look around the room, flicked the switch, causing the room to become shrouded in darkness, and then walked through the door. On the other side she found Luna sitting in front of a trio of flat panel monitors and a series of buttons, switches, and keypads on top of a cabinet that was probably four feet long and two feet deep. That cabinet appeared to be the only thing that was controlling all the magic occurring on the other side of the door.

"So that's how you do it all. It's seems so complicated," Usagi said, looking at the relatively small setup, obviously impressed in its power.

"It's not really all that hard. Most of the training is automated, so all I do is set the starting parameters, then sit back and watch."

"Hmmm. So cool!" She then went toward Luna, picking up the black cat and placing her in the shoulder bag.

"I think I can get pretty used to this training," the blonde said with a smile. "Now let's go home, I have some homework to do."

Luna looked up at her princess and smiled. _"I think I can get used to this new attitude,"_ she thought contentedly.


	5. The Other Side of the World

**Chapter 5: The Other Side of the World**

The pigtailed blonde woke up early the next morning, at 7:00 AM, which was the time she had set on her alarm clock. She did not oversleep, something she would have done before last Wednesday, nor did anyone else have to physically drag her from the bed. Here she was, Usagi Tsukino. Anyone who did not know what happened to this girl over the past three days would be surprised beyond belief to see this new individual. She was… actually being a responsible person. Here she was, waking up on time on her own, going to school on time, doing her homework—_without complaint_! No longer was she a lazy, klutzy crybaby.

After cleaning up and getting dressed into blue jeans and a light-pink, short-sleeved blouse, she went downstairs to eat the breakfast that her mom Ikuko had prepared. Luna was still asleep, so the girl was careful not to make too much noise when exiting her room. When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she could perceive the sweet aroma of eggs, syrup, and buttermilk.

"Good morning, mama!" she exclaimed, running to her mom and hugging her tightly.

"Good morning, dear," Ikuko replied. "I figured you'd be up early. It seems to be a new trend for you." She pointed toward the breakfast table. "I made omelets and pancakes. Have as many as you want."

Usagi went to her usual seat at the table. If any part of her old self remained, it was her appetite. She needed as much energy as she could get for the upcoming training sessions. Plus, she always loved to eat for eating's sake. That was an intractable part of her nature. Thus, she placed a stack of five golden-brown pancakes on her plate, drowned them in buttery maple syrup, and began to go through them in almost record pace. Her mother could only watch in amazement.

"If I knew you'd eat _that_ much, I would have made more," she teased. In fact, she was already in the process of doing just that.

Her daughter looked up at her and smiled, and quickly received a warm grin in return.

"I'm happy that you've decided to become a more responsible young woman." Ikuko paused for a moment, and her smile waned. "It's just all of a sudden, though."

Usagi looked down at her plate, which by this time only had two pancakes left on it, then looked back up at her mom. She wanted to tell her mom so much but couldn't quite bring herself to tell her everything yet.

"Well," she carefully began, "Mamoru had said to me that I was being pretty irresponsible and childish. My friends told me the same thing, so… I decided that I would try as hard as I can to be better." It wasn't quite the truth but it would do.

"Well, I'm still happy. That is one of the values of having friends. Sometimes it takes a friend to be honest to you and tell you when you're doing something wrong so you can correct it."

Usagi wondered to herself how long they—she and the other girls—were going to remain anything remotely resembling friends, never mind the fact that Mamoru completely broke up with her. "Isn't it also a value to accept people for who they are?" she asked softly, with a slight hint of sadness in her tone.

"Well, yes, it is." Ikuko walked over to her daughter and tenderly placed a hand on her shoulder. She suspected that there was something more that the child wasn't telling her. "Are you sure that everything is alright and there's nothing we need to talk about?"

"No. I was just thinking aloud."

"Okay. You know you can talk to me about anything."

Usagi nodded. She finished the last pancake on her plate and ate an omelet for good measure.

"What're your plans for today?" Ikuko asked.

"First I'm going to finish my homework, chat with Naru-chan for a bit, and then I'll probably go up to Crown for a few hours."

Naru was Usagi's best friend and closest confidant for everything except senshi matters. She was in the United States on a business trip with her mother, Mayumi, who owned and operated the jewelry store Osa-P. Her mother would occasionally go on overseas trips to inspect and purchase new items to sell in her store. It was a good way to make new business contacts with other jewelers and suppliers as well, which was crucial in this line of work. Naru was interested in being a part of the family business and someday running the store herself, so she asked if she could go on one of the upcoming trips. She expected that it probably would be a weekend trip to somewhere else in Japan, maybe Osaka or Kyoto. However, Mayumi gave her the surprise of her life when she said that she would be going to Europe and the United States for the next business trip, and that Naru could accompany her. The trip would be two months long in total, during which time Mayumi had some associates and her sister Naoki mind the store. Mayumi also made arrangements with her daughter's school so that they would allow her to go. That meant having a tutor go along with them so that the red-haired girl didn't miss too many school lessons. Naru was excited about having what she saw as both a valuable learning opportunity and an extended vacation, but she was depressed that she wouldn't be able to see Usagi the entire time.

Usagi was equally upset at the notion of not seeing her friend. She mentioned Naru's trip to the other girls (a time when they were still amicable to the blonde). Ami recalled how she used an internet video chat program to talk with her mom when she worked late-night hospital shifts and occasionally with her dad, who divorced her mom several years ago but still talked with his daughter. She suggested to Usagi that she use the same program to talk with Naru. The pair video chatted at set times during the weekday and on weekends whenever Naru wasn't busy. It served its purpose well, but it paled in comparison to seeing one another in person, and both girls knew it. Fortunately, the end of the trip was fast approaching and the pair would be returning to Tokyo soon.

"How is Naru doing? Is she enjoying America?" Ikuko asked.

"Yes, very much so. They're staying in New York now, and she says it's so much fun, that there's so much to see and do after she gets done with lessons." A dreamy look soon appeared in Usagi's eyes. "I would like to go to New York one day."

"I'm sure, when you get done with school, and Shingo as well, we'll have a big vacation, travel all over the world. It's one of the things you're dad and I have been discussing as a treat for you guys."

"_Really!_ That would be so nice! I can't wait!" She jumped up and down with excitement, while her mom gave a humongous smile.

"You actually have to make it through high school, of course, so upstairs with you to finish your homework," Ikuko said partially in jest, knowing that she didn't have to pressure her daughter quite as much as she once did. "Now I gotta make some more breakfast before everyone else wakes up."

"Yep!"

Usagi ran upstairs to her bedroom. Luna was awake and sitting on one of the pink pillows strewn across the bed.

"Good morning, Luna!" she exclaimed cheerfully.

"It's nice to see that you're feeling happy this morning," the feline replied.

"Mom just told me that we're going on a trip around the world as soon as I graduate from high school!" She started bouncing again. "I'm going to try to graduate as quickly as I can now."

"Well, that's certainly great news, I guess. You're still only in junior high, so you've got quite a long time before you graduate."

"You can be quite the spoiler, you know," Usagi said, slightly dejected. Her spirits quickly rose again when she thought about Naru.

"You know that Naru-chan is in New York, right? She must be having _soooo_ much fun right now. First off, she gets to go with her mom to pick out new jewelry to sell in their store!" Her eyes began to sparkle at the thought of all the beautiful jewels she could be wearing.

"Um, Usagi?" Luna asked, waving a paw in her charge's face in an attempt to snap the girl out of her trance.

"Oh, right! Anyway, she also probably gets to go see a Broadway show or something awesome like that. I'm so jealous!" she said in a playful tone. She then released a rueful sigh. "We'll see what she's up to when we chat later today."

The pigtailed blonde walked over to her desk and sat in the chair. "I guess, first, I'll have to get done with this homework. I can't graduate high school if I don't, right?" She winked at Luna.

"Exactly. And after that and your talk with Naru, we'll go down to the training room in Crown. We'll work on getting your fighting skills up to par with a few special youma."

"Special youma? What do you mean?"

"These are youma that we fought against during the very early years of the Silver Millennium. They appeared so far in the distant past, way before the reign of your mother, Queen Serenity, and even before her mother, Queen Selene."

"Wow…" She was both wondrously impressed and slightly worried.

"Don't be concerned. They were fairly easy youma to deal with, for the most part. A few of them were very tough and required the strength of all of the soldiers fighting together, but we won't be using those—at least, not at their full power."

"You don't think I'm strong enough to take them?" Usagi asked exasperatedly, exhaling a huff for added effect.

"No, no, no. I believe you are, or at least you will be, but we have to begin somewhere," the cat hurriedly said in an attempt to calm her princess. "In any case, it's best that you get your homework done before we think too hard about any of that."

"Right!" She opened her shoulder bag and pulled out her notebook. She decided to do her math homework first, as despite her newfound responsibility she still hated math. It was better to suffer at the beginning than at the end, she reasoned. Once that was completed, she did Japanese homework, where she had to read through some short pieces of historic literature and write a short report. Next was history homework, which she thought was slightly boring, then English, where she had to translate some simple English phrases to Japanese and vice versa. But the last and most enjoyable part was art. The assignment was to draw nature or a living thing. For this she knew exactly what to draw. Or, to be more accurate, _who_ to draw.

"Luna!" she, yelled, rousing the cat that had once again taken to her pillow and was napping.

"What, what?" Luna asked, expecting Usagi to be in danger.

"Could I ask you for a favor?"

"Oh…" she replied while trying to calm herself. "Certainly, if you promise not to scare me like that again."

"Sorry." A small pout tugged at her lips. "Anyway, can I draw a picture of you?"

"A picture of me? Why?"

"It's for my art class. I have to draw pictures of nature or living things, animals or the sort, and I had the idea to combine the two and draw a picture of you outside."

"Well, I'm flattered that you thought of me, but don't you think that would be a little strange. I mean, after all, I am a black cat with a golden crescent moon on its forehead, not exactly something people see every day. Also, where are we going to do this without anyone noticing?"

"Our garden, of course! It's walled off so nobody can see. Besides, all you have to do is just lie still and pretend to be a stuffed animal."

"Right…." Luna was blatantly annoyed at this point, as she hated having to stay perfectly still for long periods of time. She felt she had no other choice, however. "I guess I might as well."

"Thanks, Luna!" Usagi picked Luna up and placed the dejected cat in her shoulder bag. She ran down the stairs and toward the back door with Luna, a box of art pencils, and a sketch pad in her bag. She smiled at her mom as she passed, who returned the smile. Once outside, she placed Luna next to a small waterfall in the fountain and near one of the many flowers that had started to bloom. The scenery was perfect, with the light gray stone of the fountain, the greens of the lilies, the reds and violets of the various flowers, and the black and gold of Luna, all glistening in splendid late morning sunlight. She first took out her cell phone and snapped a picture. _"Just in case,"_ she told herself, the intention being that she did not want to risk messing up the drawing and losing the perfect scene in the process. However, she was not about to fail at this assignment. She removed the pencil box and sketch pad from her bag, opened the pad to a blank page, removed one of the pencils from the box, and went to work. About thirty minutes later, she was done with the sketch.

"How beautiful!" Ikuko said, standing behind her as she made the finishing touches. "It should score very well. I hope that you'll be able to get the sketch back, as I'd just love to have it displayed in the living room."

"I'm very proud of it," replied Usagi, smiling.

"I didn't know you had a toy stuffed cat before. You usually have rabbits, lots of rabbits. It's very pretty, especially with the crescent moon on its head," Ikuko said, looking toward Luna.

"_Toy? TOY? What a very rude way to refer to the special advisor of the esteemed Princess Serenity!"_ Luna thought, clearly miffed. People with extremely good vision would have seen it start to tremble ever so slightly, but, to Ikuko, the cat looked to be motionless.

"I just got it a short while ago, and I thought I'd use it as part of the drawing."

"It does add a very nice touch." The woman turned and pointed toward the back door of the house. "I made lunch if you want some."

"Absolutely!" Usagi removed Luna from the fountain and placed her in the bag along with the pencils and sketch pad, then ran into the dining room to enjoy a bountiful lunch.

After lunch, she went upstairs to her bedroom. Luna jumped from the bag and went off to a corner of the room, slowly trying to calm herself down after being referred to as a toy. Usagi walked to her desk and opened up her laptop computer. It was about time for the chat with Naru, which usually was a video chat so they could see each other. She saw a message from her friend saying that she was currently online. She started the video chat program and, after a few seconds, saw that familiar smiling face appear on the screen. Some lamps and small paintings were in the background, as was part of the bed upon which she was lying.

"Hi, Naru-chan!" Usagi exclaimed.

"Hi, Usagi-chan! How is everything back home?"

"It's all great!" That was a blatant lie, but it served a vital purpose. It was true that she had been feeling much better lately, but it did not make up for the extreme pain that she had suffered earlier during the week. However, Usagi did not want to reveal all of that yet. She wanted Naru to enjoy her trip to the fullest, without worrying about her best friend's emotional state.

"I'm so happy to hear that."

The two then went to talking about all the places Naru got to see in New York, the jewelry she got to hold while assisting her mother (making Usagi so jealous), the pair of Broadway plays they got to see, among other things. Usagi told Naru about her new liking of doing her homework and being more responsible, which made the redhead quite ecstatic. She also told her about the drawing she did featuring Luna, being careful not to reveal any secrets. Near the end of their conversation, Naru told Usagi that she and her mother were on the last leg of the trip and were due to return home.

"Hey, guess what Usagi-chan? I'm coming back home this Monday."

"_Really?_ I can't wait to see you in person again!" She was desperate to have her best friend back.

"Yep! We have a flight from New York to San Francisco, then another from there back to Tokyo."

"That's a long plane ride. I hope you don't get too bored."

"Don't worry, I'll have plenty of things to do, and plenty to listen to as well," Naru said with a smile while holding up her cell phone, which doubled as a music player, among other things. "Anyway, I have to go. It's really late here and we have to wake up early for our flight."

"Goodnight, Naru-chan!" Usagi exclaimed with a smile and a wave.

"Good… _morning_, Usagi-chan! I'll see you soon!" She winked and smiled in return.

With that, the window in the chat program went black as Naru ended the connection. Usagi closed the lid on her laptop, slouched in her chair, and sighed. Monday could not arrive soon enough.

"Don't worry, Usagi, Naru will be here soon," Luna said from her perch on one of Usagi's bookshelves across the room, the sting of the perceived insult having disappeared. "You'll have her back with you, as well as all the others. I promise."

"Yeah, I hope so."

"That's why you're training so hard. Speaking of which, we should be heading to Crown soon."

"Right."


	6. Malfunction

**Chapter 6: Malfunction**

Usagi grabbed her shoulder bag and placed Luna inside. She ran down the stairs, told her mom that she was headed off and then ran out the front door, Crown Arcade the destination.

She reached Crown a few minutes after noon. She entered and looked around for Motoki or anyone else who would notice her going into what appeared to everyone else to be a storage room. He was behind the counter dealing with some other customers, and everyone else seemed to be engrossed in their games. She sneaked past the arcade machines and silently walked into their secret training room.

Unlike her first time the vast, bright, light blue expanse of the empty training room immediately greeted her. Luna was at the control panel, ready to enter an environment and call up the first of the youma she was to fight.

"Usagi, for this first training round I'll call up Darangel," sounded Luna's voice from afar.

"Darangel?"

"A youma that tried to enter our solar system about fifteen years after the founding of the Silver Millennium," explained Luna. "It was intercepted by Sailor Jupiter—not our current Jupiter, of course, but the senshi form of the original Princess Jupiter. By comparison, the current Jupiter, being both Princess Jupiter at the time of Silver Millennium's destruction and Makoto, would be considered the ninth."

"Oh." Usagi slowly nodded, impressed at how truly ancient the Silver Millennium was.

"In any case, this is one of the easier youma we have stored in the system. You should be able to destroy it quite easily. The only caveat is that while it's weak, it's very quick, so be careful."

"I'll try my best," replied Usagi, who by that time had transformed into Sailor Moon.

The room suddenly filled with blindingly bright white light. When the light receded, Usagi found herself standing in a flat, grassy plain. She noticed a soft breeze that gently rustled the crisp green blades. The ground around her felt very spongy, reminiscent of freshly tilled and moistened soil. About one hundred feet in front of her, she saw a shadowy figure that was not much larger than her. It looked somewhat human, standing on two legs with two arms, but its skin was dark gray, as were the short wings that extended from its back. She carefully approached the being. When she got closer, she could see it had deep red eyes and a pair of small horns at the top of its head.

Suddenly, the creature, which she recognized must have been Darangel, leaped high into the air. She initially looked up to see where it would land, but then sensed that something was approaching quickly from behind her. She dropped to the ground just in time as Darangel was about to stab her in the back with a black stone dagger.

"Whew!" she exclaimed, but she did not have much more time to even think as Darangel rushed at her with a second dagger in its other hand. Usagi rolled to her right, narrowly missing that other attack. She told herself that her training from yesterday was being put to very good use. Had she been fighting such a creature even a few days earlier, she would have been stabbed twice by then. However, she also realized it would not be enough to just avoid all of the attacks. She had to deliver an attack herself before Darangel exhausted all her energy. But she could not do so yet, as she then had to leap up into the air to avoid yet another attack.

"Remember everything you learned, Usagi!" boomed Luna's voice from the sky.

She tried to run away from Darangel, but found that, despite her newfound speed, it wasn't enough to put distance between herself and the dagger-wielding youma. Ducking another attack, she had a moment of inspiration. Maybe _she_ couldn't move fast enough to escape from or out-flank Darangel, but her tiara could. While continuing to run, changing directions every few yards to avoid another attack from Darangel, she grabbed the tiara from her head and shouted "Moon Tiara Action." She then threw the illuminated gold disc straight into the air and ducked to avoid getting stabbed. Usagi ran immediately past Darangel as quickly as she could, prompting the creature to turn around and give chase. She knew she wouldn't have been able to get away, but that time it was part of the plan. She could hear and feel Darangel slowly closing in behind her, soon coming within striking range. Suddenly, she heard a piercing shriek behind her and she stopped running. She knew exactly what had happened. Turning her head around, she saw Darangel drop to the ground with a gaping hole in its chest. A few seconds later, the glowing disc returned to her hand. Her tiara had done its job.

"Excellent job, Usagi!" exclaimed Luna.

"Thanks!" Usagi said cheerfully. She had every right to be proud as, for the first time ever, she had killed an enemy by herself. From that moment on, nobody could say that she was incapable of fighting for herself.

"Now, this next enemy is going to be slightly harder, but I believe you can do it. It's called Rafki, and fortunately it's not as fast as Darangel, but it's much stronger. It belches fire from time to time, and the flames can travel pretty far, so don't lose focus."

The environment changed with another flash of light. This time Usagi found herself standing along the rocky edge of a deep crevasse. All the soft grass from the last fight had been replaced with hard stone, which was useful in that it was less flammable, but it was not something suitable for hard landings. She slowly turned her head as she scanned the distance for Rafki, not knowing what to expect, but her eyes picked up nothing. Suddenly, she felt intense heat coming up from the crevasse and she threw herself to the ground in the opposite direction. Rising up from there was something that looked like a red winged beetle, but much larger and spitting fire.

Usagi picked herself off the ground and ran from Rafki. This time she could easily get away, at least until she saw a wall of flames suddenly appear directly in her path. She stopped and turned around, knowing that Rafki was responsible for the flaming barrier. She decided that it was a decent time for an attack and removed the tiara from her head, shouted her requisite line, and threw the glowing disc at Rafki, who was floating in the air about two hundred feet away. When the disc was about fifty feet away from impact, Rafki launched another fire attack that was directed right at the incoming projectile, knocking it from the sky. She was stunned as her attack completely failed. Her tiara, which was slightly singed from the fire, rested on the ground directly beneath Rafki. The flying beetle launched another ball of flame at the senshi, causing her to backpedal. _"What can I possibly do now?"_ she asked herself. Her tiara, at standard strength, was no match for Rafki. She could have tried charging it, like she did during yesterday's test, but that would have taken a long time and would have left her completely exposed to Rafki's fire. That, and she needed to actually retrieve her tiara anyway before being able to use it. She sidestepped as another stream of flame approached.

"_Maybe I can just run in and grab my tiara, and then attack it from below,"_ she told herself. She charged toward the levitating monster, but as she got closer she found herself becoming surrounded by fire. _"Not good,"_ she thought, while jumping in the air to get away from the fire. It was then that she found herself looking at a wall of flame coming directly at her. Involuntarily, just as the fireball was about to hit her, the Moon Stick appeared in her hand. Through no real effort of her own, she quickly created a shield made of pure white energy to deflect the fire attack. She landed on the ground with a thud, her backside aching from slamming into the ground, but thankful overall to not be set aflame. However, she knew she had a weapon capable of destroying Rafki. She raised the Moon Stick above her head, spun around a few times, pointed the stick then called her attack. Instead of her typical Moon Healing Escalation, this attack was completely different and completely new to her and felt immensely powerful.

"Moon Twilight Flash!" she yelled. Upon saying the words, several intensely bright, white-hot balls of pure energy shot from her Moon Stick and charged toward Rafki, which tried to deflect them with a stream of fire. The attempt failed, however, as the balls passed through and extinguished the flame, and then slammed directly into Rafki, immediately turning it into a pile of yellow dust.

"Yes!" shouted Usagi as she ran to where Rafki once floated, picked her tiara off the ground, and placed it on her head. The damage from the flames seemed to disappear the moment she did that, and her tiara once again was pristine gold in color.

"Just what I expected from you, Usagi!" Luna said.

There were two more battles with ever more difficult youma. One was against a creature that alternated between a snake-like being and something more humanoid, but with reptilian scales for skin and was capable of using magic attacks. Usagi defeated that youma with Moon Twilight Flash after first using her tiara to destroy the relic it was using to cast its magic. The other enemy she overcame was humanoid and similar in speed to Darangel, attacked with lightning, and used a magical shield that deflected any of her attacks. She managed to beat the youma by getting as close as she could, generating her own shield with the Moon Stick, and tricking the monster into attacking itself.

Usagi and Luna enjoyed a short break after the last battle, allowing the girl to catch her breath and regain some energy before proceeding to the next enemy. She was amazed when she saw Luna licking a strawberry and banana ice cream sundae contained within a small glass. Part of her amazement stemmed from the fact she had no idea where Luna had gotten the treat, and the other part arose from the sting of her trusted advisor not offering her one.

"_Luna!_" she yelled, jealous that she didn't have any ice cream.

"Usagi, you know you would get sick if you ate ice cream and then tried to go fight."

"True, but…" When it came to food, especially sweets, Usagi could become quite insufferable when denied. She knew she had no other choice. "Okay, okay, I'll get you one after the last round of training. It'll be a reward for your hard work."

"Thanks!" Usagi paused for a bit and then asked, "Where did you get that anyway?"

"The special training room is special for more than one reason you know," Luna replied with a smirk.

"Hmph!" The pigtailed blonde exasperatedly crossed her arms with a huff.

"Anyway, it's time for the next round," the feline said while enjoying the last bite of her sundae.

"How long have we been going at this?" asked Usagi. Her entire body was starting to become sore from all the physical exertion.

"Since it's twenty past three now, I'd say about three hours."

"Wow…"

"Fortunately, you're almost done. There are only two more enemies left for you to fight for today's session. They're harder than the others you've encountered, but I think, with everything you've learned today, you should be able to beat them."

The room filled with dazzling white radiance, and once Usagi uncovered her eyes she saw she was in the courtyard of a majestic castle. Massive columns of marble supported the gleaming silver roof of a covered walkway that completely enclosed the space. The castle itself was mostly made of white marble speckled with bits of pink, red, and brown granite, with solid white marble trimmed in gold surrounding the window openings. The walls were filled with sculptures and various shapes. She could make out large five-pointed stars at the base of the walls along with what appeared to be faces of various people unknown to her but people she figured had to be quite important. Behind her she could hear the whoosh of water as it blasted from the top of an ornate sculptured fountain and the splashes as the droplets fell into the pool. When she turned to inspect the fountain, she could see that it appeared circular and contained a white marble statue of a woman that looked very much like her. As she walked around it, she could see that the true shape of the fountain was that of a crescent moon. She noticed eight concentric circles etched in the marble floor surrounding the fountain. The one nearest to the fountain was azure, followed by amber, crimson, and jade rings each separated by ten feet. A thirty-foot wide space separated those rings from the second quartet, whose colors were violet, deep navy blue, sea green, and charcoal and were also spaced ten feet apart from each other. Aligned with the center of the crescent she saw a series of astrological symbols made of polished silver that she recognized as representing the planets of the solar system.

"Luna, is this the…" she started to ask, but she was interrupted by Luna's reply.

"Moon Palace of the Silver Millennium? Yes." She paused for a moment before continuing. "You're standing in the main courtyard. Well, actually one of the main courtyards. This particular one occasionally was used for some ceremonies but typically it was used for training the palace guards. The buildings you see housed those guards."

"Wow! It's such a beautiful place."

"If you think this is impressive, you should see the actual royal palace. The moon palace is not one castle, but several, all interconnected with the kind of walkways you see in front of you."

"Can we go on a tour?" Usagi was just astonished at the splendor that surrounded her.

"If you want, I can reload this environment _after_ you defeat the youma."

"Oh, right!" The dreamy look in the princess's eyes suddenly disappeared. She remembered that she was there to train to fight, and that her opponent may appear at any moment. She didn't want to be ambushed the same way she was by Rafki.

Luna began to further explain the adversary Usagi was about to fight. "Now, the enemy you'll be fighting is Malanche, a fierce sorceress and shape-shifter who attacked the Earth during the reign of Selenity the third. In response, Selenity sent aid to the kingdom of Earth, including several of her palace guards. That act helped to save Earth, but it so enraged Malanche that she shifted her focus to attacking the Moon. With help from the senshi of the respective planets, Queen Selenity was able to defeat Malanche."

"Hmmmm…" Usagi said, somewhat listening while scanning her surroundings for any sign of Malanche. "So, she's more like Queen Beryl?"

"In a sense, though Beryl is human and mostly is powered by Metalia. Malanche's power came completely from within." Luna's voice deepened and Usagi could sense the seriousness of her next words. "Usagi, be careful. Malanche is the only threat, besides Beryl, to actually breach the palace grounds. She is extremely powerful, and if I didn't turn her power down in the simulator, I strongly doubt you'd be able to defeat her. In fact, I doubt the five of you combined would be able to defeat Malanche at her full strength."

"I'll try my best to be careful," Usagi said, her fear exposed by the slight wavering in her voice.

She slowly walked away from the fountain and toward the center of the courtyard. She looked up at a sky that was deep black and empty except for the Earth. She felt oddly familiar with seeing the Earth hanging in the sky, as if it were a latent memory of a distant past. Sensing no immediate threat, she looked back down at the courtyard. Where could Malanche possibly be? The place seemed completely empty. She turned and looked back at the fountain, and in that instant confusion ran across her face. The statue that was in the fountain… was gone. Suddenly she heard light breathing behind her. She whipped around and saw a white marble statue that looked exactly like her, senshi uniform included. She knew it was Malanche and slowly backed away, keeping her eyes locked on the statue the entire time.

As she backpedaled she sensed there was another being behind her, one that was far more powerful than anything she had faced previously. The realization struck her hard: the statue was not Malanche but a decoy, and she had fallen into a deadly trap. She ducked as fast as she could to the ground as the silver blade of Malanche's sword narrowly missed her throat. Usagi grabbed the tiara from her head and turned to throw it at her attacker but stopped mid toss as she realized nobody was there. She felt chills run the length of her body. This enemy appeared, attacked, and disappeared before she could even lay eyes on her. She scanned all around trying to find any hint of the sorceress. Just then, she felt another presence to her right, mere feet away from her. It was the same statue from before. She tried to guess where Malanche would be hiding as she readied her tiara. All she needed was a target.

She abruptly felt a sharp pain in the right side of her body. She looked down and saw a long, slender needle protruding at the base of her chest protector. The needle appeared to come from where the statue was located. She turned toward the statue, shouted "Moon Tiara Action," and threw the glowing disc. It seemed to go right through the statue and disappear, which befuddled her. Her confusion would only grow as the statue then turned into the image that she had longed to observe.

In front of her stood a tall woman with waist-long, raven-colored hair, deep black eyes, and pale ivory skin. She wore a black cloak from which streamed several silver ribbons. In her right hand she held a long sword with a jet-black hilt and silver blade. In her left hand she held a brightly glowing gold disc.

"This is interesting. Very, very interesting," the woman, who Usagi immediately recognized as Malanche, said in a high-pitched, slightly raspy voice. The woman looked toward the blonde.

"This is yours I imagine. Would you like to have it back?" Malanche asked sarcastically.

Usagi was both perplexed and horrified. Her opponent was holding her attack and examining it the same way a person in a grocery store would hold and examine a piece of fruit. Then she saw that Malanche was no longer holding the gold disc, and that it was heading directly towards her head. She screamed as she jumped out of the way of her own assault. The tiara skidded several yards down the marble floor before stopping against a wall.

"It was pretty weak anyway," snorted Malanche. "I'll show you something much stronger."

She lifted her sword above her head. The blade began to glow a brilliant blue color, followed by a swirling white mist that encapsulated the sword. Without a sound, she pointed the blade at the senshi. The mist leaped from the sword and raced toward its target. Usagi barely had time to see the sword being lowered at her before she felt the stings of dozens of long slender needles similar to the one that struck her earlier. The first needle, which was still lodged in her chest protector, narrowly avoided piercing her skin. She was not so lucky with the other needles. She looked down and saw them dangling from her arms, legs, stomach, and back. Suddenly, she felt massive stinging sensations all over her body as the needles were slowly removed. The pain was excruciating, akin to having her entire body on fire.

From the control room, Luna could see the attack. She realized something was not quite right. The needle attack was one that she explicitly removed from the simulation as she only wanted to present a dangerous but manageable situation for Usagi, not kill her. Being hit by just one of the poison-tipped needles was enough to make that part of the body numb for several hours. The number of needles that struck the girl would probably cause her to lose consciousness, if not kill her, within minutes if she couldn't manage to heal herself. There was no antidote for Malanche's poison, especially when combined with her magic.

Usagi collapsed to her knees. She wanted to rip her skin off. Her vision started to blur, a combination of the effect of the poison and tears welling in her eyes. In the distance she heard a faint voice.

"Hang on Usagi! You were hit by poisoned needles! Try to cleanse yourself of the poison as best as you can! Meanwhile, I'm going to reset the simulation."

"Cleanse myself…" Usagi whispered. She felt her Moon Stick appear in her hand. A pink light radiated from the crescent as she held it in front of her chest. The pain in her skin slowly receded as the light negated the effects of the poison. Her vision became clearer, and she could see Malanche standing about twenty feet from her with a wry smile on her black lips.

The room filled with a bright white light. _"It must be Luna resetting things,"_ Usagi thought as she covered her eyes with her forearm. However, when the light receded, nothing appeared to be changed, and Malanche continued to stand ever so close.

"_That's not supposed to happen,"_ Luna said to herself. She looked at another of the monitors and felt absolute horror. The reset had failed. Not only did it fail, but it somehow _increased_ the setting for Malanche's strength to the highest level. Luna punched several keys on the keypad in an attempt to change the setting but to no avail. She heard laughter over the speakers.

"Sailor… Moon? No, that's not right," Malanche said as she walked toward the princess, who was still on her knees recovering from the poison. "I remember no such senshi."

Usagi felt herself being lifted first to her feet, then in the air, although no hand was actually touching her. Directly in front of her she saw Malanche examining every part of her body. She heard the woman gasp and then speak in her raspy voice.

"Hah! How sad it is that the great Queen Selenity has become so weak," Malanche said as she levitated Usagi so that the two could look eye-to-eye.

"Seeing your cold, lifeless body will pleasure me greatly." Usagi felt her frame become stiff, as if some other being was manipulating her extremities. "You have interfered with my plans for the last time!"

With that exclamation, Malanche lifted her sword high above her head and brought it down with ferocious speed upon Usagi's head. The only thing that saved her from a sudden demise was her Moon Stick. With tremendous effort she managed to free her arms and bring the stick above her head to block the incoming blade. She felt relieved to block the attack, but the relief was short-lived. She saw a pale hand thrust toward her chest, followed by a feeling of intense pain, far worse than that caused by the poison needles, spread across her entire body.

"What is this?" Malanche said while grasping the transformation brooch clipped to Usagi's bow. "Is this small thing the source of all your pathetic power?"

That was the worst thing that could ever happen to her, she thought. The Moon Stick disappeared from her hand as her body started flickering with bright pink and white light. Her transformation was gradually weakening.

Luna jumped down from the control panel. She had tried every button and knob, but none of them seemed to work. Her last hope was to manually shut down the machine before Malanche killed Usagi. Unfortunately it took about two minutes to open the emergency panel and engage the manual shutdown switch. The fact that she was a cat made the whole procedure that much more difficult. However, there was no other choice.

Usagi could feel energy draining from her as Malanche gripped the brooch more tightly. _"This must be what it feels like to die,"_ she thought. She released a burst of bright light as her senshi uniform disappeared in to nothing more than several streams of pink ribbons emanating from the brooch attached to her chest. If Malanche managed to rip the brooch from her body, she knew she was as good as dead. She didn't have the energy to move her arms or legs anymore, and blackness was filling her vision.

"_This is the end,"_ she thought. Suddenly, she saw her mom's face, smiling gently as ever. The next moment she saw Naru, and remembered faintly that she was coming back home. She couldn't die before she saw her best friend. Then she saw the faces of the other girls. Ami, Minako, Rei, and Makoto. They may have been annoyed by her to the point of breaking their friendship, but she felt, she believed in all her heart that it was never going to be that bad. She would regain their trust and camaraderie. She absolutely had to. And there was nothing in the universe that was going to stop her from achieving that crucial goal.

Luna had just managed to open the door leading to the manual shutdown switch when she heard a massive roar emanate from the speakers. She looked at the monitor just in time to see the room fill with a tremendous gold light.

When the light dimmed, the unconscious girl covered in pink streamers was no longer present. In her place was a girl wearing a resplendent, flowing white gown trimmed in silver and gold. A gold crescent moon emblem shined brightly on her forehead. Her long blond pigtails fluttered as though they were being whipped about in a stiff wind. No, she was no longer Usagi Tsukino, nor was she Sailor Moon. Princess Serenity had made her appearance.

"Queen Selenity, so you show your true power at last!" exclaimed Malanche as she continued to confuse Serenity with the ancient monarch.

"Evil creature of an ancient time, I hereby banish you to the depths of eternal darkness!" Usagi yelled in reply. She held the flower-shaped Silver Crystal in her outstretched arms toward Malanche.

Meanwhile, Luna redoubled her efforts to shut down the machine. She had been afraid that Malanche would kill Usagi, but now that she saw that the blonde had transformed into Princess Serenity, she feared Usagi would end up killing herself using the Silver Crystal. The switch felt as if it was extremely heavy, but she tried with all her might to move the lever.

Malanche sneered at Usagi. "Good luck with that!" She charged toward her adversary with her blade in hand, firing hundreds of the poisoned needles. However, none of them got close to the princess as a flash of bright energy burst from Silver Crystal, evaporating the needles midflight. That same explosion hit Malanche and blasted her into one of the marble columns. Usagi then slowly walked toward Malanche.

"I will not allow you to harm anyone or anything on this planet or any other ever again!" she shouted. A sphere of white energy enveloped the Silver Crystal as she prepared to deliver her final, most crushing blow.

"_USAGI!_ _NO!_" yelled Luna as she glanced at the monitor with one eye and jumped on the lever with all of her might. She felt herself abruptly fall backward. The lever had finally moved.

Usagi pointed the Silver Crystal directly at Malanche, prepared to attempt to seal the evil woman away. She was stunned to see the evil sorceress suddenly disappear from view. A moment later, the entire courtyard itself vanished, and the entire room turned white. She continued to hold the charged crystal.

"Usagi!" Luna shouted, hoping to catch her attention.

"Luna…" Usagi softly replied.

"Usagi, you can calm down now. Malanche is gone."

The white sphere of energy surrounding the crystal slowly dissipated. The crystal then disappeared, as did Usagi's gown, which was replaced by the jeans and blouse she originally was wearing. Her transformation brooch miraculously remained intact and was clipped to her blouse.

"Usagi, I think you're done for today," Luna said while panting heavily.

"I think so too."

Usagi turned and exited the room, making sure to flip the light switch. On the other side of the door she found a frantic, hyperventilating black cat lying on the control panel. One of the doors in the cabinet below the panel was opened, and she could see a large switch that was partially exposed.

"Usagi, I'm so sorry about that!" cried Luna as she jumped into her charge's arms.

"Don't worry, Luna, I'm here and still very much alive." A light smile pulled at her lips.

"_You had no idea how close you were to dying, how close I was to losing you,"_ Luna thought. She sighed sadly.

"You know what, Luna?" Usagi said after several moments. "I think I can wait on that tour of the Moon Palace."

Luna looked up at Usagi. "I agree," she replied.

The pigtailed blonde winked at the feline. "However, I'm not going to wait on that ice cream sundae."

Luna could do nothing but smile.


	7. Origins of Unity

**Chapter 7: Origins of Unity**

Usagi and Luna left Crown and eventually found themselves at Juuban Park later that evening, sitting on a stone bench that faced a small pond. The surface of the water was as smooth as glass, and they could see themselves if they looked at just the right angle. More often, they saw the reflections of a few lone white clouds passing through an otherwise clear, pale blue sky and a brilliant orange sun that would soon begin to slowly fall toward the horizon. The temperature was ideal, not as cold as it had been in previous days, or as hot as it would become in a few months. It was a perfect day to be outside, to work or play, or in their case, to just sit and reflect.

"Luna," began the blonde, speaking in a soft and pensive voice, "how close was I to dying?"

"Huh?" Luna asked, confused from the suddenness of the question.

"In my battle with Malanche, how close was I to dying?"

"Well, there are two ways to look at it, but both would have been equally bad in the end. Your transformation to Princess Serenity most definitely saved you. Had you not changed and your transformation brooch was destroyed, you certainly would have been lost." Luna looked down at a loose leaf bobbing on the surface of the water and sighed. "However, being Princess Serenity would not have saved you either as you would have used the power of the Silver Crystal."

"What would have happened if I used the Silver Crystal?"

"Well, you may or may not have succeeded in sealing away Malanche," the feline whispered. "Given that the whole thing is supposed to be a simulation, I don't know if you actually could have sealed her. What I do know is that, with only one exception, the cost of using the Silver Crystal is one's life. That's why the Silver Millennium tried so hard to avoid using the crystal."

"Someone used the Silver Crystal and didn't die?" Usagi was confused at that instant, and for good reason.

"Yes. She was Queen Serenity, the second Queen Serenity, from many, _many_ years ago. Your mother is effectively the fourth to take the Serenity name, and you would have been the fifth had the Silver Millennium survived."

"Hmmm…" Usagi stared into the sky and tried to imagine herself as queen of a magnificent kingdom on the moon, the most powerful monarch of a union of kingdoms that stretched across the solar system. Failing that, she attempted to imagine being a queen of, well, anything. She soon gave up and just reconciled herself with being occasionally a princess of a long-lost kingdom and, more often than not, a mostly normal teenage girl.

Luna continued. "Anyway, in those days, the kingdoms of the solar system were not as united as they are now. Some were even in a state of warfare against one another, wars that lasted hundreds of years. That lack of unity ultimately left the whole of the solar system vulnerable to attack by outside forces. The kingdoms on each of the planets tried as best as they could to defend themselves when they were assaulted by a force of pure, ancient evil, a source of evil and hatred so great that Beryl—no, Queen Metallia—pales by comparison. They tried to fight the massive hoards of youmas that would suddenly appear using their own forces but inevitably they would be overwhelmed. The royal families sent their daughters, the Sailor Senshi of the time, to neighboring planets to ensure the survival of their bloodlines. Eventually, all the senshi ended up on the moon, their kingdoms destroyed and their families lost."

"That's so terrible," Usagi said, tears starting to fall from her eyes as she visualized the magnitude of the death and destruction that remained.

"Indeed it was," Luna replied softly. "This dark, evil force then found its way to the Earth and the Moon. The various senshi, the only survivors from the other planets, knew that the only way the Earth had a chance of survival was if the Silver Millennium could defeat this mysterious horde. If the Silver Millennium fell, Earth indubitably would fall, as the Earth and the Moon were, and still are, one. They realized from their own experiences that, despite the power of the Moon kingdom and its Silver Crystal, the evil would succeed if the Moon fought alone. So, the senshi put aside whatever differences their planets may have had. Their planets were destroyed anyway, so there was no more point in continuing useless bickering. They would now do everything in their power to ensure the survival of the Silver Millennium."

Luna paused at that point. She took a deep breath and slowly turned her head to look up at her charge. The young blonde clearly was transfixed by the account of how the senshi came to be united. The pale look in her eyes revealed her hope that knowing how the senshi originally were united would somehow solve why they currently were abandoning her.

"Go on," Usagi murmured. Luna began to speak once again, her somber voice barely above a whisper.

"The senshi fought desperately to prevent the hordes of youma from breaching the palace gates and spilling onto its grounds. At the same time Queen Serenity and her daughter Princess Selene accumulated their energy within the Silver Crystal. However, the queen and princess realized the amount of energy they had might have been enough to defeat the monstrous evil but not enough to prevent the effective demise of the Silver Millennium."

"So, what did they do to survive the power of the crystal?"

"There was nothing they could do by themselves. Only when all of the senshi lent their power to Queen Serenity was the crystal able to grant her wish."

"Her wish?"

"Her wish was the revival of all the kingdoms within the solar system and their harmonious unification. She witnessed how immensely powerful the senshi were and how brightly they shone when they fought as one. That wish is what kept her and Princess Selene alive, allowing them to be prime figures in rebuilding the kingdoms of the other planets. To repay her generosity, the kingdoms swore an oath to forever protect the Silver Millennium and its princess, so that the Silver Millennium would always live on."

"I see. That's how everything started, with the various senshi having to protect the princess," Usagi replied. Tears welled in her eyes and she started to visibly tremble as the sad irony of the conversation was not lost on her. "Does it mean that the other girls, the other senshi, have decided to forgo their promise?"

"I don't know if they truly remember any of it at their current level. And, even so, you being Sailor Moon likely complicates things," Luna replied.

"What do you mean?"

"All of you girls are just starting to truly remember your past selves, your identities as senshi. In your case, you have your identity as Princess Serenity, but you also have this identity as Sailor Moon which never existed before."

"So, I'm the first senshi of the moon?" Usagi asked hesitantly.

"Correct. All the other planets have had senshi since the beginning of time, as far as we can remember. When Serenity united the planets, when the planets swore to defend the moon and its princess, the moon itself had no senshi to call its own. But now it does, and maybe because of that the other planets' senshi, the other girls in this case, involuntarily decided they didn't need to defend you anymore." Luna was trying hard to come up with any sort of reasoning for the girls' behavior, and that was the best she could do.

"But am I not still the princess? They may feel they don't need to defend me as Sailor Moon, but they still made a promise, right?" Tears steadily fell from her eyes. "Even then… even then, does it mean they have to completely abandon me? Call me stupid, useless, and other hateful words?"

Luna looked up at the blonde. "Usagi, I'm sure they'll see that you truly are not stupid or useless, and that if they abandoned you they would lose the dearest, most valuable thing they ever had and could ever have. So, keep fighting!"

Through her tears and the veil of sadness covering her face, Usagi managed to forge a small, gentile smile. It was clear to her that she definitely had a chance to reconcile whatever issues her friends had with her. She needed to maintain her hope and her focus.

"Luna," she whispered while looking down at Luna, "have I ever told you how much I love you?"

Luna was slightly taken aback by the sudden confession, but in a way she already knew. Usagi was, by far, the most thoughtful and loving person she'd ever met. That also was Princess Serenity's personality, and Serenity cared for Luna as much in the past as her young charge did in the present.

"Usagi, I am most honored to be your advisor, and absolutely nothing in the entire _universe_ would make me want to leave you," Luna replied, her tone revealing her utmost sincerity.

Usagi picked Luna up in her arms and gave her a tremendous hug, her ongoing tears dampening the feline's fur. They stayed that way as they spent several more minutes on the bench gazing at the slowly setting sun and the resplendent orange sky reflected in the pond.


	8. No Return

**Chapter 8: No Return**

"Ugh…"

Usagi tried to lift herself out of her bed against the raucous complaints of her muscles. All of the training from the last two days seemed to be catching up to her all at once. Almost being killed didn't particularly help either.

"Luna, is there any more training that I have to do?" she asked with a whimper.

The feline, who was lying next to her on the bed, opened an eye and pointed it toward the aching girl. "Why, yes, of _course_ there's more training. You'll get used to actual physical activity more than every once in a while, I promise."

Usagi groaned. She knew she needed the training, so she could fight for herself and prove her usefulness. But, did it have to be so painful?

"Some good stretching and maybe a massage will help you," Luna said.

"A massage… that would be really nice right now." She pointed to the base of her neck where it connected to her right shoulder. "How 'bout right here? It does feel a bit tight."

"What?" Utter confusion contorted Luna's features, and the blonde's smile only worsened her perplexity.

"You're offering a massage, right?"

"No-no-no! I wasn't saying _I'm_ giving you a massage," Luna said, placing a paw over her face. "Just that _someone else_, preferably one without sharp claws, should give you a massage."

"You're so _mean_!" Usagi replied, pouting at Luna. "I would be nice enough to give _you_ a massage." She then reached out and grabbed Luna, cradling the cat in one arm while stroking it across the back with her free hand, causing the cat to purr contentedly. "See? I told you," she said with a wink.

She released her advisor after giving her a few more strokes. The girl then looked up at the ceiling and sighed, drawing to her a worried gaze.

"I've been thinking about our conversation yesterday. You said that Queen Serenity was able to use the Silver Crystal without dying," Usagi said pensively.

"That's right."

"You said that each senshi lent her power to the Silver Crystal so that Queen Serenity's wish could be granted, and that is what saved her." She looked over toward the window, through which early morning sunlight poured into her bedroom. "I remember standing near the fountain at the Moon Palace, and there was a bunch of rings, colored rings on the ground around the fountain. I could see names next to them: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter…" She paused and looked at Luna. "There were other rings as well. Other Sailor Senshi…"

Luna could sense the consternation in Usagi's voice and her face as she described the scene. "Yes, there are other senshi. I didn't want to tell you because I didn't want things to be so complicated for you so early on. Every planet in the solar system has, or had, a kingdom attached to it, and with that every planet had a senshi to defend it. There are more senshi besides the ones that you're familiar with."

"Why haven't we found them yet?"

"Well, the senshi you're talking about, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and—" she fell silent for a moment, hesitant to say the name, before continuing— "Saturn, they are quite different from you all. They keep a constant vigil at the ends of our solar system, watching for external threats. They've done this for many generations, thousands upon thousands of years."

"Why didn't they respond when Beryl attacked?"

"Remember, Beryl was from Earth, and Metalia was already within the solar system, sealed by your mother. Thus, Beryl's attack likely would have taken them by surprise. That being said, it's likely they would have come here as fast as possible, having taken the vow to protect the Silver Millennium after all."

"What happened, then?" Usagi asked with obvious concern.

Luna sighed. "I don't know. Things have been very strange after the last use of the Silver Crystal. For example, Beryl and Metalia are the only enemies that have managed to return after being sealed in the entire history of the crystal and of our kingdom. It means they weren't completely sealed away."

"Does it mean that Metalia is way too powerful to be defeated by the Silver Crystal?"

"Maybe, though I would hate for that to be true. What's more likely is that your mother's power by itself was not enough to fully defeat Metalia. She would have needed the power of all the senshi together, but they were already gone, and you as well, killed by Beryl using Metalia's power."

Luna shuffled about then stood up, eyes directed at the bedroom window. "The other strange thing," she said, returning to the original point, "is that the other senshi, the Outer senshi, were not there for the original attack. So when your mother used the Silver Crystal to wish your soul and that of all the senshi into the future, their souls may still be dormant."

"Is there any way we can find them? Anything in particular we can look for?"

"I think that's something that we have to let them do on their own," Luna replied sadly.

"I'm sure that time will come," Usagi said with eyes fixed on the spinning blades of her bedroom's ceiling fan. She sighed. "I just wonder what they're like."

A short while later she finally found the strength and motivation to roll out of bed. It was still fairly early in the morning, around 8 o'clock, and she could smell breakfast being made. Food was always something that captured her attention. She walked downstairs where she found her mom had made steamed rice and grilled salmon. A bit more traditional than the pancakes from the previous day, but it didn't matter to her. She felt she could eat anything, just so long as she could move her hands to her mouth.

She sat down at the table in her usual seat. The mumblings of some announcer could be heard from the television set in the living room but she paid no attention to him. Food was far more important. Her father, Kenji, was catching up on the morning news. He worked as an editor for a major news magazine, so he was always interested in having the latest information.

"Good morning, mama, papa," Usagi said cheerfully from the table while chewing some rice.

"Morning, pumpkin," her dad replied.

Usagi took a bite of her fish. She was pondering what she was going to do for the last day of the weekend. Suddenly, something caught her attention. Her ears perked up as the sound flowed in from the television speakers:

_We have some breaking news about an airplane incident that happened a few hours ago off the west coast of the United States. Here is what we know so far. About two hours ago airport officials lost contact with an aircraft en route from San Francisco to Tokyo over the northern Pacific Ocean. The passenger jet is a Japan Airlines Boeing 777, flight JL005, with 385 passengers and crew on board. The pilots appear to have sent an emergency message to air traffic controllers in the U.S. and then attempted to return to San Francisco for an emergency landing. A few minutes later, the plane disappeared from flight-control radars. Some reports have placed the site of the crash about 320 kilometers from the coast. Search aircraft sent by the U.S. Coast Guard found the accident site about thirty minutes after the plane was lost from radar, and we now have learned that rescue operations are underway. The cause of the accident is still under investigation. The video you see here is being brought to us by American television. As you can see, there is a massive debris field that stretches for hundreds of meters in all directions. Coast Guard helicopters are hovering overhead, searching for survivors. Representatives from Japan Airlines have scheduled a news conference for 11 o'clock this morning, which we will bring to you live. That is all the information we currently have. When we receive more news we will bring it to you as soon as we can._

Usagi slowly walked into the living room, her eyes glued to the television monitor. The screen displayed a scene of utmost devastation. All color disappeared from her face. Naru was supposed to be returning home today. She likely would have already arrived in San Francisco, as her flight from New York was early in the morning her time, or later that afternoon yesterday for the pigtailed blonde. Could her best friend have been on the plane whose pieces were strewn all over the water? Her mind raced crazily and her heart beat was so loudly it practically could be heard outside her chest.

"Is something wrong, dear?" Ikuko asked. She could easily sense the anguish building within her daughter.

"It's that… Naru-chan's coming back home today… from San Francisco…" Usagi said haltingly.

"I'm sure everything will be alright with Naru," Ikuko said in an attempt to calm her daughter. She walked to the trembling girl and loosely wrapped her arms around her in a tender embrace, holding her like that for several seconds. Usagi's nervous quivering did eventually cease, but her sadness steadfastly remained.

Usagi sulked back to the table and slumped back down in her seat. She finished the bowl of rice far with far less enthusiasm than when she started, then left the table and trudged upstairs to her bedroom. She fell on her bed face forward, and the tears that had welled in her eyes earlier found their way down her cheeks.

"Usagi?" Luna carefully asked, eminently perceptive of her charge's emotions.

"I just have this feeling… this horrible feeling… that Naru-chan…" Usagi muttered in between sobs.

Luna peered at the crestfallen girl. "Is there something wrong with her? Did something happen?"

"Luna… Do you remember that Naru-chan… and her mom are… returning home today?" Usagi said hesitantly.

"Yes," Luna replied.

"Well, their flight is… from San Francisco, and…" She was struggling mightily to finish the sentence, but she somehow found the strength to speak coherently, if only for a short while. "I just heard on the news a plane from San Francisco to Tokyo crashed into the ocean."

"Usagi, there's no guarantee that it was her flight," Luna said in an attempt to soothe the sobbing girl of the unbearable pain she felt.

"True… but…"

She buried her head into one of her pillows, her tears darkening the pink fabric. Luna jumped onto the bed and slowly walked to her side. She sat beside the distressed girl and attempted to console her as best she could.

"Listen to me, Usagi," Luna began with her voice barely above a whisper. "We don't know if she was there. She may well have been on an earlier or later flight."

"I know… I know…" Her voice sounded hoarse and cracked slightly. "I just have this feeling… I don't know why…."

"Just believe, Usagi. I have no doubt that if you believe in Naru's well-being, then she'll be okay."

The blonde closed her eyes and concentrated as hard as she could on wishing that Naru was not aboard the crashed airplane, or if she was that she somehow managed to survive. An observer with really good eyes might have noticed a very faint pink halo surrounding Usagi's figure. A few seconds later, Luna found that Usagi was sound asleep, having wished so hard for Naru's sake she drained herself of energy. Luna decided it may be a good time for a nap herself and snuggled right next to her princess.

—|1|**2**|—

Usagi led a fairly melancholy existence the remainder of that Sunday. She sent Naru several emails that afternoon asking if she was okay, hoping that maybe she was on a different flight. Naru's cell phone was able to send and receive emails, and she usually responded to them quickly. Furthermore, she and her mother typically flew first-class and on airlines that had wireless internet that their cell phones could access. However, the lack of any response from her best friend sank her spirits. The news bulletin later in the day improved her state of mind slightly. She heard that there were many fatalities, but about half the people managed to be pulled from the water alive. She hoped, beyond hope, that Naru was one of the lucky ones.

Luna suggested that the two of them go to Crown and train some more. She proposed that the training would help the girl relax by forcing her to do something other than worry. Usagi acquiesced, knowing deep down that her advisor was right and that worrying would only make her ill. She also figured that it could be helpful, as a warrior, to learn to fight even when her emotions would rather that she not. The youmas she fought were tougher than Darangel and Rafki, to be sure, but not nearly as frightening as Malanche. She defeated all of them frighteningly quickly, doing what Luna advised she do: focus and channel her emotions into her attacks. In doing so, Luna saw Usagi use all her capabilities with a ferocity she had never seen from any senshi in the solar system, including Uranus and Neptune. Little by little, by destroying the enemies in front of her, Usagi's anxiety dissipated, if only for a short moment in time.

The pair returned home later that evening, and the very first thing the otherwise exhausted pigtailed blonde did was bolt up the stairs for her computer. She desperately needed to know of her best friend's fate, and had prayed for a response to the email she had sent before her departure. Her hope was that the redhead would have sent a calming, if not slightly silly, reply telling her that she was never on that plane and that she had nothing to worry about. Unfortunately, she saw no such message. What she did see was a message from Mayumi, Naru's mother, and that only made her heart begin to beat harder. Part of her anxiety stemmed from her fear for what the email might have contained, and the rest came from the mere fact that it was from Mayumi and not Naru.

"Well, don't be worried," Luna said as she peeked over Usagi's shoulder. "As I said earlier, I believe she is perfectly fine."

A halting nod and hesitant mouse click later, both the girl and the feline were transfixed by the words that filled the message window. The former slowly exhaled a deep breath that she did not even know she had held as her eyes scanned the characters. After a few seconds, the tiniest smile came to Usagi's lips, though it was far from mirthful or satisfied. Maybe, she was just relieved, plain and simple. For, in the end, her advisor was absolutely wrong about Naru's fate. However, the worst had not come to pass, and that simple knowledge overcame any distress she might have had previously.

Concerning Naru and her mother, they had been plucked from the chilly ocean and flown first to a Coast Guard cutter, then to a hospital in San Francisco. Mayumi was in fair condition with several small lacerations to her arms and legs, which was amazing in its own right considering the devastation of the crash. Naru, on the other hand, was in critical condition. A large piece of luggage had fallen out of an overhead bin and hit the girl in the head when the plane slammed into the water, immediately knocking her unconscious. She also sustained some other injuries, including a deep laceration to her right leg caused by the same set of luggage and inevitable bruises caused by being jostled about. Mayumi held onto her daughter as tightly as she could while floating on a seat cushion and some suitcases that happened to pass nearby, something she had to do for almost an hour until they were noticed by the rescue helicopter. In the end, Naru had only regained consciousness about an hour after being flown to a hospital in San Francisco and was still in pretty terrible shape. But she was alive, and that was all that mattered to Usagi.

"I figured she would be alright." The blonde gasped and quickly turned around to face the doorway, as those words were spoken not by Luna but by her mother.

"Huh?" She was perplexed by how Ikuko could figure out the news.

"I could tell by your expression," Ikuko said, a light grin tugging at her lips and bright, sepia-toned eyes gazing warmly at her daughter. "You're a lot less depressed now than you were this morning."

Usagi slowly nodded in recognition, but was not totally convinced. "But, still… I mean, how would you _know_?"

"I guess the phone call that I received from Mayumi a short while ago helped a bit with that as well," Ikuko said as her smile widened. "Apparently, the doctors were not able to coax Naru back to consciousness for some time. But, for reasons they still can't figure out, she was able to come to on her own."

For the first time that entire day, or at least since she learned the terrible news about the crash, Usagi truly felt cheerful. A lively radiance came to her eyes, let alone the rest of her body, and her smile was so brilliant that her mother was suddenly hesitant to reveal to the girl the rest of what Mayumi told her. The last thing she wanted to do was to destroy that vivacity.

"So, does that mean she's going to be able to come back home soon?" Usagi eagerly asked.

Ikuko sighed as her happiness faded, to be replaced by a more somber tone, as she walked into the bedroom. "I'm afraid not for a while, dear. I know how much you desperately wanted her to return home after being gone for so long, but—"

"It's alright," Usagi softly interjected. Despite her best attempt, she could not conceal her newfound dejection, although it paled in comparison to her sadness from that morning. "As long as she's okay, she can take as much time as she needs."

The only thing dark-blue-haired woman could imagine doing the moment she perceived that drastic shift was tightly embracing her daughter and showing her how much she loved her. Indeed, it was excellent news that the crash had not killed Naru—many other families were less fortunate that day—but the girl was still seriously injured and as a result could not return to Japan. They both understood that. They knew that the long-planned reunion would have to occur at some time in the distant future, with the precise day known only to fate. And that was the problem. She inherently sensed that something was bothering Usagi, something serious enough to force her to radically change her behavior and sap her of her natural ebullience. What the source of it was the girl was reluctant to reveal, but she guessed that she would figure out in due time. The last thing she wanted to do was force out the answers to her questions. Instead, she would continue to do whatever was within her power to support her young princess.

The pair broke the hug after a few more seconds, and Ikuko slowly exited the bedroom and walked back downstairs while Usagi sat on her bed. The girl exhaled a deep sigh. She was happy, if not wholly ecstatic, that Naru was still alive, but she knew that it was unlikely her friend was coming back to Tokyo for a long time, and that lone recognition sapped her cheerfulness. Indubitably, the girl's injuries would require that she stay in the hospital for at least a few weeks, if not for much longer. Somehow, when she asked that question, she had forgotten that her hopes and prayers could only go so far. She had looked forward to tomorrow for months. She had planned a special treat for that delightful redhead to celebrate her return, but no longer was that going to happen. Not anytime soon. It deeply disappointed her that she wouldn't see Naru's smiling face in person—maybe via a computer monitor, as they had done so many times in the past, but not in person. Much more time would pass before she could see her beloved friend again.


	9. Partners, Not Friends

**Chapter 9: Partners, Not Friends**

All living things eventually die, and all good things eventually must go bad. Thus is the way of the universe. As such, the weekend came to an end and begat the start of another week of school. For Usagi, that meant another week of attempting to avoid awkward situations involving those other girls. Deep down inside, she abhorred having to dodge them as much as she hated when they abandoned her that day. Almost a week had passed since then. She wondered how they felt about her. Did they still hate her, utterly despising the mere idea of her presence let alone her physical existence, or did they slip into the phase of simple ambivalence? Was it a wound that time could possibly heal? She desperately wanted a chance to show them that she wasn't a dumb, useless, inane, klutz of a blonde. However, she also knew that if the messed up just once, as Minako reluctantly warned her that awful night, she risked forever losing their friendship. In light of those circumstances, she attempted to carefully plan her day in her mind. It was supposed to be something like this: classes, as usual, followed by lunch alone, or with some acquaintances with whom she talked and was friendly as was her personality, but with whom she didn't feel nearly as close as with the girls or with Naru, then more training with Luna, homework, and bed.

Ah… Naru.

Usagi looked forlornly over at Naru's empty desk. It was the day she was _supposed_ to return, when she wouldn't be so alone anymore. A tear splattered against the lacquered oak of her desk as she sighed deeply. The empty space might as well have been the hole in her heart caused by her best friend's absence and not some silly collection of wood and metal in some stupid classroom. Just thinking about what could have been pained her deeply. Her moistened, frighteningly vacant eyes turned away from the hole and locked onto the figure of some random woman with reddish-brown hair at the front of the class. Or that's how it appeared, but she may have well been looking _through_ the woman instead. It didn't matter to her. Her mind was elsewhere. If she could have hopped on the first jet flying to San Francisco, she would have done so without a second thought. That was how much she missed Naru-chan. However, she was stuck there, in that stupid classroom, with no end in sight to her misery.

"Okay, pay attention!" blared Haruna's sharp voice. Usagi suddenly snapped out of her trance. At the front of the room she saw that sometimes-frightening woman staring directly at her, those turquoise eyes boring a hole directly into her soul. She shuddered almost involuntarily, not knowing what on Earth she did or did not do to attract her teacher's undivided attention. Then, as suddenly as she was isolated and targeted, those menacing eyes pulled away, shifting the gaze of Haruna to the classroom at large. The breath that she had been holding in her lungs rushed out in the form of a deep sigh.

"You will be placed into pairs to complete the take-home assignment I'm giving you all today," Haruna said. She was holding a small, puffy bag made of purple fabric. "To keep things fair your partners will be chosen randomly." She pointed at Naru's empty desk and Usagi's heart sank deep into her stomach once again.

"It looks like Naru will not be returning for a while, and we have another student that's out sick, so there's an even number of students and no need for groups of three."

Usagi groaned. A group project with nobody she really wanted to work with, and one person she most definitely _didn't_ want to work with. She did not think things would end well at all.

"Now, I want each of you to come to my desk and draw a slip of paper from this bag," Haruna said, carefully holding the bag out to the class in her hands. "On each slip is a number between one and twelve, and there are two of each number. The people with the same number will be partners for this exercise."

One by one, the students orderly walked to the front of the room, removed a slip of paper from the bag, and silently returned to their desks. Then, any semblance of silence, calm, or order vanished when Haruna allowed the students to compare numbers and find their partners. Usagi slowly, fearfully, pulled apart the small folded rectangle of white paper in her hand. Handwritten in black ink was the numeral "4". She looked around the classroom. The students had already begun to separate into pairs, save for a few. She recognized a lone figure sitting in a desk by a window that had yet to find her partner. Her cold, almost expressionless eyes locked on Usagi's miserable orbs for a brief moment. In that instant, Usagi could feel all month's worth of tension bubble to the surface. She gulped audibly. Those eyes then darted away to look through the window, as though the other side of the glass contained something far more interesting. _"Impossible…"_ she told herself. But, it was true. Dreadfully true. She willed her body with all her might to give her the strength to push herself from her desk and walk over to the girl with those callous blue eyes. The girl with whom she hoped and prayed she didn't have to partner. Fate played a cruel game with Usagi, and she lost.

"Ami… chan?" she asked, her voice cracking slightly to reveal her trepidation.

"Of all the people in this class, I end up being paired with you," Ami replied in her typical low volume, but her tone was devoid of any feeling. She continued to stare out the window.

"It's not like we had a choice," Usagi replied softly.

"Well, I'd much rather work alone than have to work with _you_." The inflection on the last word sent a shock straight through Usagi's heart. If the pigtailed blonde was holding onto any hope that Ami felt ambivalent about her, those hopes were completely and utterly demolished. Evidently, Ami felt anything but ambivalence. No, she _loathed_ Usagi.

"It's not like you're even capable of doing the work yourself anyway, so why pretend," she added.

"What do you mean by that?" Usagi asked resentfully. She knew she was fully capable, and had been proving as much to herself, to her teacher, and to anyone who wanted to see during the past few days. Hell, all Ami had to do was open her eyes and pay attention. As depressed as she had been just a few minutes earlier while thinking about Naru, that sadness was easily replaced by an anger she didn't know she possessed.

"You'd be bugging me for all the answers and get totally distracted by food or some game or sleep the whole time. I'd do all the work and you'll get the credit. You'd be completely useless when it comes to this assignment."

That did it. Usagi was incensed. Rarely did she have the motivation to scream in anger at any of the girls—Rei excluded, of course, and even then it was all ultimately light-hearted. But that was in the seemingly distant past when the girls were extremely close best friends, almost like sisters. That clearly wasn't the case anymore. And the use of that word, "useless"; that horrible utterance sent Usagi beyond her breaking point.

_* WHAM *_

"_That is not true! I am NOT useless!_" Usagi shouted with palpable fury in her voice. Those normally sapphire-blue eyes were fire red, filled with venom. Her fist pounded the desk she was standing next to with an exceptionally loud thud that reverberated about the room. She was incredibly lucky that the desk did not snap in two.

At that point, the whole world—the entire universe, even—seemed to come to a sudden stop. Both Usagi and Ami could sense twenty-three pairs of eyes fastened upon them. Ami slumped deeper into her chair in obvious embarrassment. Usagi did not care one iota what those others thought of the scene. She had a point to make, and she was determined to make it as clearly and as forcefully as she could.

"Tsukino-san!" Haruna said forcefully while stomping her heel into the floor. "What in the world do you think you are doing by yelling and disrupting the rest of my class?"

"Making a point," Usagi said without hesitation. Her burning blue eyes never strayed from Ami's pale face as she spoke.

"Well, you can make your point even clearer after school today," Haruna said. It was Usagi's first detention since Tuesday, and for once she did not give a damn.

"Really?" Ami whispered a few seconds later, but it was more a scoff than a legitimate question. Her eyes were fixed on the window, not at all daring to meet the challenge posed by Usagi's.

"You'll see," was all Usagi replied before shifting her gaze from Ami and stomping back to her desk. She slumped down hard into the seat before resting her head in her arms.

The remainder of the day mercifully was far kinder to Usagi and flew by quickly. Even her one hour of detention spent mopping the classroom floor seemed more of a respite than a punishment. That she didn't complain, not once, during the detention period amazed all the other students unlucky enough to be so punished. They were familiar with her, of course, as detention practically was her last class period of the day. However, they had no knowledge of her rededication. Besides, the time allowed her to think about things. Foremost on her mind was her argument with Ami. How on Earth were they actually going to work on that project when Ami wanted nothing at all to do with her? There needed to be some sort of understanding between the two girls or they would never be able to complete the assignment.

Usagi looked up at the monotonously ticking clock as she put the mop away. The hands showed 4:30. She planned on going home to pick up Luna before heading to Crown for more training. She slid open the classroom door and took only one step before suddenly stopping, frozen by the sight in front of her. There stood Ami, her body as rigid as a solid beam of steel, on the other side of the door. However, unlike during their earlier exchange she willingly allowed her eyes to meet Usagi's pair. They were softer eyes that betrayed a hint of emotion, one that wasn't absolute hatred. Nevertheless, the pigtailed blonde braced herself mentally for what she figured was another round of abuse.

"You said you were not useless," Ami said in a soft voice. Her tone was less harsh than during the argument earlier that day and yet not fully sympathetic.

"I'm not useless," Usagi replied flatly. That might as well have become her mantra.

"I'll give you a chance to prove that to me. I mean, I can't do this alone after all, and, _believe_ me, I tried to find a way." Ami paused after that, waiting for a response, but Usagi provided nothing more than her continuing intense stare. She sighed and looked down. "Can you meet me tomorrow afternoon at the central library?"

"Why not start tonight?" Usagi asked more harshly than she intended. Her anger had yet to completely subside. As for meeting to work on the project, she planned on spending an hour or so training, but she figured she still had plenty of time afterward for the assignment.

"Well… I'm awfully busy today. I have cram school, then… other things I have to do after that," Ami said hesitantly, her eyes actively avoiding Usagi's glare.

Usagi could immediately sense that Ami desperately was trying to not reveal something. Ami was never a very convincing liar, but Usagi could not determine the exact nature of the secret. She decided she wouldn't press the point further. Ami seemed to be opening up to her again, ever so slightly, and she didn't want to risk ruining it by delving too deep into sensitive personal subjects. Of course, if she couldn't shelve her latent fury toward Ami that would have been just as ruinous. So she took in a deep breath of air, held it for a full second, and slowly exhaled. The pain and anger she held seemed to slowly melt away as the air left her lungs.

"Okay, I guess we'll meet tomorrow after school, around four o'clock," Usagi said, awash in a new feeling of calmness.

Ami nodded. She turned and started to walk away, but then stopped and turned back to Usagi. It was obvious something else preoccupied her mind besides determining a meeting time.

"You've changed. I never would have expected you to yell like that in the middle of class, especially at me," she said.

"You've changed too," Usagi retorted irately. "I never would have expected people I consider to be my friends to abandon me so completely. Especially you." That feeling of calmness regrettably was short-lived as her mind and body were slowly enveloped by rage once again. The incensed glare she shot at Ami could have bored a hole clean through the blue-haired girl. That last phrase she delivered with exceptional force. But, amazingly, Ami was having none of it.

"You brought that upon yourself," Ami replied coldly, her eyes answering Usagi's challenge.

"What do you mean?" Usagi replied with equal coldness. She delved into her memory in a hasty attempt to recall any instance, or sum of instances, anything she might have done that would result in her current treatment. Anything at all. She found nothing.

"Don't you _dare_ act like you don't know!" Ami yelled, her voice breaking as she was enveloped by a curious mixture of anger and sadness. Sadness? Usagi was as stunned by the outflow of that emotion from Ami as she was by her sudden yelling, and suddenly she was less angry herself than she was confused.

"But, I really don't," a startled Usagi said, nervously taking a backwards step away from Ami.

"Y-You know what, forget it… I'll see you tomorrow. Don't forget," Ami whispered as her body trembled, consumed by newfound fury. She turned and stormed away from the perplexed blonde.

Usagi stared blankly as Ami ran down the hall and around a corner. She sincerely had no earthly idea to what Ami was referring, but whatever it was it probably was the reason all the girls had abandoned her at once. It might have been the reason Mamoru left her as well. Whatever 'it' was clearly was a tremendously vital clue to a mystery she desperately needed to solve before she could regain her friends. With that pressing on her mind, she turned and ran for home, as quickly as her legs could take her, looking for Luna.

—|1|**2**|3|—

Usagi returned home after serving an hour of detention to retrieve Luna and head to Crown for more training. However, her thoughts were completely focused on the conversation she just had with Ami. What in the world did the blue-haired girl mean by saying Usagi brought it—her isolation from her friends and ensuing colossal misery—_upon herself_? As hard as she searched her mind, she could not find one incident that could cause the girls to hate her so much, so suddenly. And to make matters even more confusing, it appeared that Ami was feeling just as hurt as her, despite the fact she was the one being completely abandoned. If Ami was that upset, then it stood to reason that the other girls were equally distressed or worse. The confusion just was too much for her, and it made her head throb.

She finally reached her house and bounded up the stairs two to three at a time toward her bedroom. As she entered she saw Luna perched on a window sill peering through the glass at the garden down below. Ikuko was outside tending to some of the flowers.

"_Luna!_" Usagi yelled, her voice so full of anguish, completely startling the black cat.

"God, Usagi, you have to quit _doing_ that!" Luna snapped. Her heart seemingly was in her throat and her breathing had turned ragged from the sudden scare and rush of adrenaline.

"Sorry," Usagi said dejectedly, her eyes falling to look down at her shoes. She took a deep breath and literally shook herself free from that brief moment of depression. There were more important things to be depressed over. At that moment she needed two things: confidence and answers. She didn't know, and somewhat didn't care, where she got the latter. However, she knew that the former could only come from one source—herself—and as long as she remained confident she could prevail. She sauntered to her bed and leisurely sat down at its edge, crossing her legs while leaning back slightly, propping herself up with her elbows. Her eyes reflected the tiniest glint of light as she pointed them at Luna.

"Anyway, I have a project for English class, a two person project. The partners were chosen randomly and—" she chuckled for a second— "wouldn't you believe it, I ended up being paired with Ami." She spoke with a strange calmness that easily could have been mistaken for melancholy.

"What? With Ami? Seriously? Are you alright?" Luna asked, her voice breaking nearly an octave higher and filled with utmost concern for her most precious person. She leaped from the windowsill to the floor and raced to the side of the bed. _"What am I going to do about this?"_ she thought. Usagi had to be very distressed, no doubt about it. She and the girls were still on bad terms. Worse still, Luna had no idea of how Ami would react to being forced to interact with someone she greatly despised. She figured the meeting couldn't have been too pleasant, however.

"Oy, yeah, I'm fine now, for the most part." An audible huff was expelled as Usagi allowed herself to fall fully onto the enveloping softness her mattress. She then laughed softly to herself. "She did say earlier that she'd rather work alone and that I was useless, kinda like what Rei said before."

"Usagi…" Luna was heartbroken over Usagi's continued abuse. She jumped onto the bed and gently strolled across the silken mattress cover to the blonde's side. She desperately wanted to console her princess, but how? So imagine her surprise when she found herself grasped under her arms and lifted into the air by a girl who was anything but dejected.

"No worries, Luna. I said I was fine, didn't I?" Usagi said cheerily. She sat up and held Luna so that the black cat could see directly into her crystalline eyes. As Luna peered into the resplendent blue orbs her fears about Usagi's emotional state was swept away, replaced by the same calmness and confidence that overtook her charge. She heard a melodious laugh escape Usagi's lips. No way could that have come from a depressed person.

"You know, the funny thing is I yelled at her in front of the entire class after she said that. Ended up getting detention but, _boy_, was I satisfied after that!" Usagi said with her mouth turned into a mischievous grin.

"I'm not happy that you ended up with detention, but I'm thrilled that you stood up for yourself."

"Yeah, so am I." Her grin further widened into a glowing smile. She fell back down onto her bed, caressing Luna in her arms. She had a healthy glow about her face as she thought about that little victory. But then the glow started to fade, as did her smile. Was it really a victory? Her goal was to get her friends back, not to ostracize them in the same way they were abandoning her. She reflected on her latter conversation with Ami. The girl did appear as though she was starting to open up to her ever so slightly, but then that door closed as quickly as it opened. She thought, and thought, and soon realized she truly didn't know what to think about that incident.

"You know, there's something that's confusing me right now," Usagi said calmly—not painfully, or cheerfully, just with that odd sense of calm she displayed earlier.

"What's that?"

"Well, Ami hates me the same way they all hate me right now, but I get the strange feeling that I hurt her somehow."

"Where'd you get that idea?" Luna asked incredulously. After all, _Usagi_ was the one who was supposed to be hurt, not _them_.

"I spoke with Ami again after detention. Some small talk, nothing much. We decided on a time to start working on this thing. Then it got really strange. She said I had changed. I told her the same thing. Then for whatever reason she told me I brought all of this—" she said while gesturing in the air with one arm— "entire situation on myself. I asked her what she meant, but she snapped at me, said I should already know."

Luna gave Usagi a pitiful look that wasn't returned as her eyes decided to follow one of the slowly rotating white blades of her ceiling fan. The two remained like that for several seconds, until the blonde broke the utter silence that permeated between them.

"So, Luna, do you happen to have any idea what Ami meant? 'Cause I'm all out," she said, finally peering at her advisor, her eyes narrowed and nose scrunched up as her face displayed a look of utter perplexity.

The feline was silent for several moments, her head bowed in deep contemplation, before answering. "I have no idea," she replied haughtily as she lifted her head once again. "I can't think of anything you've done to hurt her. As far as I know, she's just making excuses and trying to blame you for their behavior."

"Maybe so…" Usagi said as her voice trailed off. She seemed to momentarily leave the physical world as she was lost in deep contemplation. _"Could that be it? Ami's just trying to deflect everything onto me?"_ she asked herself. She shook her head. She knew Ami well enough to know that that she'd never be one to unduly blame anyone else for her own problems. Or so she thought. Did she really, _truly_ know that girl anymore? After all, Ami never would have treated her as harshly as she did, nor would she have kept a grudge as long as a week. And yet she did both. Nevertheless, that answer didn't completely satisfy her. There just were some mysteries that had to be solved in their own time, and apparently that was one of them. As for the moment, she needed to get to Crown before the sun completely faded from the evening sky.

"Well, shall we go now?" she asked with a strangely cheerful voice as she shot straight up. Luna, who was futilely attempting to gain her princess's attention by waving a paw in front of her face, was stunned as she suddenly flew to the other end of the bed.

"Usagi…" Luna muttered with annoyance.

—|1|2|**3**|—

"Oh my God! That was _intense_!" Usagi said, slightly slumped over and panting heavily, as she exited the special training room, remembering to flip the light switch as usual. She didn't exactly know why she felt compelled to turn the switch, or what would happen if she failed to do so. It probably wasn't even connected to anything, but it didn't matter, at least not right then. One day, she thought to herself, she would get around to asking Luna about what that switch actually did.

"How's that for your first fight against two major youmas at the same time?" Luna asked with her lips pulled into a tight smirk.

"Oh, come on! I was doing well against Frozema. You had to go ruin things by adding that damned spider," Usagi said, clearly annoyed. She sat on the ground in front of Luna and the control panel with her legs splayed before her and attempted to catch her breath.

Frozema was a humanoid youma that created her own personal blizzards and attacked using freezing darts. The cold and the wind made fighting especially difficult for Usagi, as the senshi uniform was not what anyone would have considered optimal wintry-weather clothing. Any attempts to use her Moon Tiara Action attack against Frozema were thwarted, at least initially, by the fact that the driving snowstorm prevented visibility beyond a few feet. Frozema, on the other hand, had no trouble seeing her prey and relentlessly firing the freezing darts at her. It took all of Usagi's strength and skill to sense the attacks and avoid them, lest they encase her within a block of ice. Eventually, she thought she had Frozema all figured out and was about to execute her plan to defeat the monster. That's when Luna decided to make life considerably more difficult by adding a second enemy, a spider-like youma.

"That's Araneae, by the way, and you did happen to defeat both of them, didn't you?" Luna replied with that cocky smile still plastered on her face.

"Yes, but still…"

"You _do_ know that you're not always going to be so lucky as to fight enemies one at a time, right?"

"_Hmph_!" Usagi said, crossing her arms in front of her chest. She was irritated, but she knew Luna was correct. She just wished the cat could have made it just a little bit easier for her. Having to avoid stepping in sticky webs on the ground when she could barely see where she was walking in the first place was nerve-wracking. Having eight legs compared to Usagi's two, Araneae was insanely fast, and that made avoiding the youma's poisoned bites all the more treacherous. On the other hand, the challenge of Araneae's speed and of Frozema's blinding frost storm made defeating the two of them all the more satisfying.

Her success came from learning the weaknesses of her two opponents and using those faults against them. Araneae was extremely quick, the fastest enemy she had fought yet, but it had very poor vision and thus it could only track Usagi by feeling the vibration of her footsteps on the ground. Frozema moved slowly, but used her blizzard to her advantage to outflank her victims and then attack from a distance with her darts. Usagi had the disadvantage of not being quite as swift as Araneae, and she couldn't see through Frozema's snow, but she had her own skill she used to her advantage. She realized the saucer-like accents on her odangos were more than mere decorations. If she concentrated really hard, she could use them to enhance her hearing. Thus, although Usagi couldn't see where Frozema was when she fired her darts, she could hear where the darts were coming from, and thus sense her location. Similarly, she could hear the light taps of Araneae's eight legs as they rapidly approached. With that, she devised and executed her plan. She jumped high in the air as Araneae passed and removed her tiara, readying her attack. Instead of flinging it through the air, she tossed it toward the ground in such a way that it skipped like a stone on water. The skipping of the disc mimicked footsteps, footsteps that led directly to Frozema. Araneae immediately dashed toward the vibrations created by the disc with a blinding speed that caught Frozema completely off guard. She could not evade Araneae's bites quickly enough and was fatally poisoned, but not before attacking Araneae in a desperate bid of defense, freezing the large spider in a block of ice. Upon landing on the ground, Usagi then used her Moon Twilight Flash attack to destroy the frozen Araneae.

"Okay, I'm officially tired now," Usagi said while covering a wide yawn with her hands. "I was going to go to the library and start searching for a topic, but now I just want to go to bed."

"You do know Ami's probably there already, right? She probably has her topic already. You don't want to fall behind, do you?" Luna said with a teasing smirk. Her true intention, however, was motivating Usagi.

"Ami said she was really busy today, and that she was going to start tomorrow. She sounded really strange though, like she was hiding something. I don't know."

Luna nodded. "Well, whatever it is, I guess it's her prerogative. I'm not too concerned as long as _you_ don't end up hurt by it. She does have her own life after all."

"True." She took a few more deep breaths and then motioned toward Luna. "Ah well, let's go home now."

"Yes, you do need your sleep, for when we do this again tomorrow I'll have _three_ youmas for you," Luna said, winking at the sleepy blonde.

"No way! Luna!" Usagi said with her face twisted into a scowl.

Usagi eventually lifted herself from the ground and knocked some of the dirt from her school uniform with her hands. She placed Luna within her shoulder bag and carefully exited the room, making sure not to attract anyone's attention. They exited Crown and turned toward home. It was frighteningly dark outside. The warm, dry nighttime air was mostly still, with only the occasional breeze cascading down the street and around the buildings to provide comfort for the tired girl. On the other side of the street, walking away from them, she glimpsed the figure of a tall man with what appeared to be dark hair accompanying, arm in arm, a shorter girl, also with short hair that was slightly lighter in color but still dark overall. The taller man appeared from the rear to be Mamoru, but it was difficult to be certain under the cover of night and with her fatigue. She had no clue of who the girl was, nor did she care, and she didn't spend any more time thinking about it. She shrugged and returned her focus to the path toward home. As she entered the threshold to her house she reflected on the day's events and exhaustedly shook her head.

"_This is going to be a crazy week,"_ she said to herself.

She had no idea just how correct she was.


	10. Nightmares and Dreams

**Chapter 10: Nightmares and Dreams**

Usagi suddenly jolted from her bed, her breaths ragged and heavy and her trembling body drenched in cold sweat. Her anxious eyes darted in every possible direction, straining as hard as possible in a desperate attempt to find light, any light. It was the dead of night, hours before the sun would rise, and as such she could only see utter darkness except for a tiny sliver of pale silver light that flowed through a crack in the curtains. It was the reflected light from a full moon that hung high in the early morning sky. It would be this pale moonlight that ultimately would rescue her sanity. As her eyes adjusted she could begin to discern the outlines of large objects: something that looked like a desk to her left, another object resembling a bookshelf in front of her. Mundane items, really, but for some reason she was thrilled to see them. She looked down at her clammy, quivering hands, looking first at her palms and then flipping them over to see the backs. They were still there. She closed her eyes, drew in a deep breath and slowly exhaled. When she opened them again that same desk, that same bookshelf, and that same shaky pair of hands appeared before her. All of that and the other things that began to come into focus were very real objects that belonged to her private sanctuary—her bedroom. She laid her head back on her pillow as tears streaked down her cheeks. They were tears of sorrow but also of joy, all mixed together. She was at home, in the comfort of her bed, but at that time she would have been just as happy to be at school or even in locked within the depths of the harshest prison. Hell, she was ecstatic to be _anywhere_ but the place she felt trapped the instant before she opened her eyes.

She had just experienced a horrific nightmare. It wasn't one of the several reminiscences of her past life and death as Princess Serenity when the Silver Millennium crumbled after Metalia's attack. No, her dream was not a latent memory at all but a premonition, or something to that effect. In it, she was transformed as Sailor Moon, and around her she found her fellow senshi. They were all somewhere isolated and full of trees, probably the main park, underneath the suffocating black canvas of the nighttime sky. The overall mood was equally dark and tense and everyone was furious, murderously furious. Everyone save one soldier. They were fighting, but… there was no youma to be found. They were fighting, but they had a different target. The other four senshi, esteemed guardians of the solar system, were engaged in the ultimate act of betrayal. They were attacking _Sailor Moon_.

Conversely, Sailor Moon—Usagi—was doing everything she could to calm her fellow senshi, to dissuade them from assaulting her, always evading their attacks and never sending any attacks of her own. Yes, she was more than powerful enough to defeat them. At that stage they were no more powerful than any youma she had fought for real or in her training. One well placed throw of her tiara would have incapacitated all four of them in a single strike. But she resisted, despite her fatigue and the immense pain that was beginning to envelop just about every muscle in her body. She resisted because she knew in her heart they were merely misguided. She resisted because she could not attack her own friends, even if they did not consider her a friend anymore. Instead, she tried to get away, to leave them alone, to give them their time and to hope they tired of their foolish hatred and realized the monumental mistake they were making.

"_Maybe if I just leave them be they'll eventually calm down. I'll have lost their friendship for a while, but… that would be that,"_ she dejectedly thought.

But it would not have been that simple. They were not going to quit. They were hell-bent on attaining one goal: killing Usagi. And they were not going to stop until they succeeded.

She tripped over something, what it was she didn't know, and fell hard face-first on the rough gravel of a walking path. As such, there shouldn't have been any exposed branches or wires to catch her feet. She started to push herself up from the ground when she felt something whip-like smash against her back. The impact felt like thousands of knives pressing deep into her flesh. She collapsed to the ground yet again. Out of the corner of her eye she could see a figure clad in orange, holding a bright gold chain made of pure energy. Then she realized what had happened. She had been running for so long, evading their attacks for hours on end, and tiring herself to such an extent that her footwork wasn't as precise as it once was. The thing that tripped her to the ground, the thing that then lashed her back, was Venus's Love-Me Chain attack. She pushed herself to her knees and found to her horror that she was surrounded by all four of the senshi.

"Please, just let me go! I beg you! I won't bother you again! You'll never see me again!" Usagi yelled in absolute despair. Her body was trembling uncontrollably as she looked up at the four girls standing around her with pale, almost vacant eyes that overflowed with heavy tears.

"That's not good enough, you fucking fraud!" boomed the shrill, enraged voice of Sailor Mars. Mars was normally ill-tempered, but Usagi witnessed a new level of fury—passionate, unmitigated fury—that she had never before seen from the girl. "Bitch! You, of _all_ things, deserve nothing but the most painful death I can possibly provide!"

"A death that can't come soon enough, you goddamned imposter!" That slightly lower-pitched but equally furious voice belonged to Sailor Jupiter.

Through her blurry eyes Usagi spotted her salvation standing tall above her—a route of escape. She hurriedly lifted herself from the ground and attempted to jump to one of the trees. From there, she planned to hop from treetop to treetop away from the trap. However, she never made it that far. In midflight she felt a sudden electric shock course through her body, causing her to lose control and crash back to the ground. Before she could gather herself she felt a pair of hands holding each of her arms to the ground, and another, much stronger pair of hands grasping her legs. She struggled as mightily as she could to free herself, but she was running out of strength. As was typical in hunting highly mobile prey, all the hunter eventually had to do was to corral the prey. To make sure it didn't get away. To give it no true outlet for escape. The target's desires for escape, its innate survival instinct, would have driven it to run and run, searching for every possible out, to the point of exhaustion. From that point, the kill was all too easy. The girls, her former friends, had chased her to that point of utter exhaustion. The easy kill, she figured, could only be moments away.

An angry figure clad in red stood over her. Sailor Mars. Her narrowed eyes, though normally violet, were blood red with unmitigated rage. She pointed at Usagi with both hands held together and her fingers extended. Her fingers then ignited to form a large ball of red flame. At that same moment her lips were pulled into an unmistakable smirk of utmost satisfaction, as if she was seconds away from fulfilling her life's dream. Usagi knew what was coming next, and it terrified her to no end.

"Don't! _Please!_" Usagi yelled with all her remaining strength. Her eyes widened in anticipation of the horror she expected. Her plea went unanswered.

The gargantuan red fireball erupted from Mars's hands and blasted Usagi from point-blank range. A shrill, deafening scream borne from unimaginably intense pain escaped Usagi's lips for several seconds as the searing flames engulfed her. She had observed that attack applied several times against various youmas with various degrees of success. Never had she seen the attack used with that level of ferocity. For a brief moment, she understood just how much Mars—Rei—truly, truly hated her. Her screams soon ceased, and all that remained of her was a badly broken girl wearing a shredded and burnt leotard and blue skirt, the occasional rise and fall of her chest the only sign of life. In the darkness that slowly encapsulated her vision she could barely see a hand reach to her chest and grasp her transformation brooch.

"Now, I have to take _this_ back to its proper owner," Mars shouted as she tugged hard on the brooch to rip it from Usagi's chest. "I have no fucking idea where you got our princess's Silver Crystal, but I'm sure as all hell _you_ don't deserve to have it!"

"No…" was all Usagi could wimper as her transformation disappeared with a bright flash of white light into several glistening streams of pink ribbons. A few seconds later she felt sharp pain explode throughout her entire body. She felt as if every single nerve ending in her body were dipped in acid and set aflame. But that wasn't the real source of her excruciating pain. Her physical pain was equal when Malanche attempted the same thing. However, the added stings of abandonment and betrayal trumped any physical pain. For someone who, at one time, cared for her as a devoted friend and swore to protect her life at all costs, for that same person to then strive to end her life was the absolute worst. That turnabout was the thing that made her suffering the most intense pain she had ever felt.

Soon, her bodily pain would recede, replaced by an eerie calmness that caressed her very soul. The smallest tingling sensation coursed through her veins. Despite her failing vision she could clearly see the ground through her body as she slowly looked herself over. She was slowly fading away. Her very existence was coming to an all-too early end. With all her might, she struggled to lift her head to lay her eyes upon the figures standing around her. Through the darkness she could barely make out a girl staring back at her with narrowed, hate-filled violet eyes, her lips pulled into a mocking grin. A tiny flash of gold light emanated from a gloved hand, and she knew exactly what that girl possessed. The last thing Usagi saw as she felt her body completely disappear and her world slip into a numbingly dark, frighteningly silent, and infinitely huge abyss was Mars holding the transformation brooch in her hand.

It was at that time when Usagi finally escaped from her nightmare.

She looked down at the floor toward a still-sleeping Luna. Her head began to throb, but she welcomed the pain as it reminded her that she was still alive. She quietly slid herself out of bed and walked out of her bedroom, down the hall, and into the bathroom. The flood of light as she flipped the switch on the wall momentary blinded her, but she soon recovered. She stared into the mirror and saw a face devoid of color except for paled blue eyes, covered in sweat and framed by completely disheveled blond hair. She was an absolute mess. She trudged back into her bedroom and looked at her alarm clock. It showed "4:00" in dim red numbers. She had two hours before her alarm went off, but she knew she didn't need to worry about it. She had no desire to sleep anymore.

She looked over her shoulder at her bookshelf. There had to be something good that could take her mind away from that terrible dream. Unfortunately, the bookshelf didn't have many books, as Usagi—the _old_ Usagi—wasn't much of a reader. Instead, the shelves were filled with stacks of manga. Many of them were about Sailor V. It was bitterly ironic that that she absolutely devoured those books when she idolized the fanciful crime-fighter of whose identity she had no idea. But, as she stared at the shelves, her stomach turned at the mere sight of those volumes as she knew how Minako felt about her. Minako, as well as all the others, wanted her _dead_… right? That was what she experienced in her nightmare after all. But was any of it real? The girls loathed her very presence, she knew that. Even after a week Ami, one of the calmest and kindest people she knew, someone who rarely ever held a grudge, hated her, loathed her, and could not even stand to be around her. Did that hatred finally culminate into a desire for her ultimate demise? And what did that have to do with Ami's proclamation that she brought all of this upon herself? Usagi gazed through her window upon the starry night sky and sighed. So much for her attempt to distract herself from the nightmare.

She reasoned there was no point in being cooped up inside her room, worrying herself sick about the implications of her nightmare. So, she would sneak out of the house and find some other place where she could contemplate things. Luna seemed too peaceful to be worried, she thought, so she decided not to wake her. She carefully slid open the window and climbed over the sill to a short ledge that wrapped around the house. She was still wearing her pink silk pajamas, and she involuntarily shuddered as a cold breeze hit her. She looked over to her right and saw the drain line for the gutter. _"Too risky,"_ she thought, for if she slipped it would make too much noise. She decided to jump down from the ledge directly onto the garden walkway below. It was about a ten foot drop, which initially scared her, but she soon found the confidence in herself to make the jump. She landed gently and silently with both feet and one hand touching the ground. All of her training was paying off.

Once on the ground, she exited the garden through the side gate and walked onto the street. She stood there, utterly motionless, for several minutes as she stared up at the sky and bathed herself in the pale silver moonlight. A small smile came to her lips and her melancholy eyes slowly started to display their true resplendence. The moonlight had a therapeutic effect on her. The longer she stood there the more her emotions of anxiety and fear were replaced by feelings of hope and assuredness. She caught a glimpse of a light much brighter than that from the moon in her right eye which broke her trance. It soon became a pair of lights, headlights, belonging to a car that was quickly approaching her. She dived off the road and hid in a pair of bushes belonging to the house across the street from her own. She didn't want to be struck by a car in front of her own house in the middle of the night. She also didn't want to be caught violating curfew in case that same car belonged to the police.

She emerged from the bushes once the car passed and started walking with a sense of purpose toward Juuban Park. Why that particular destination suddenly came to mind was uncertain to her, but it just felt right. She walked swiftly but carefully, hiding whenever she sensed cars approaching or saw policemen patrolling on foot nearby. About twenty minutes later she found herself standing in the middle of the park, staring at the reflection of the moon within the perfectly smooth surface of the pond. She began to feel calm once again, but that tranquility was to be short-lived.

Her head began to throb as all sorts of images flooded her mind. Memories from the past of the Silver Millennium mixed with premonitions of the future, some of which were like her nightmare, others completely different. She placed her hands on her head and fell to the ground writhing in silent agony. Then, the pain stopped, and everything around her disappeared except for the pond. A faint pink light lead from where she laid to the reflection of the moon in the center of the water. She heard the soft, serene voice of an older woman, a melodious voice that seemed vaguely familiar to her, but she couldn't quite place it.

"Stand up, my dear," the voice said quietly.

"What? What's going on? What is this?" Usagi whispered. She continued to lay on the ground, her body trembling lightly, unsure of anything except her own existence. And even that she was beginning to question in her mind.

"I will tell you everything in due time. For now, stand up," the voice said slightly louder but still in a peaceful tone.

Usagi slowly pushed herself up from the ground and onto her feet. She turned and saw the pink glow of the pathway leading to the center of the pond.

"Follow the path to the moon."

"But…" Usagi started to complain about how the path was over the water and that she couldn't possibly walk on water, but she was interrupted by the unknown woman.

"Please hurry. I don't have much time," she said in earnest.

Usagi took one tiny step, and another, and another along the shimmering pink trail until she reached the edge of the pond before she paused. She was still uncertain about continuing out onto the water.

"Just believe in me, and believe in yourself."

Usagi closed her eyes and moved her right foot forward. She loosed an audible gasp of amazement as her foot never hit the water but landed firmly on a solid surface mere inches above. She continued to step forward, each step more confident than the last, until she reached the end of the pathway. As soon as she stopped a bright white light shot down from the sky and enveloped the awe-struck blonde. She felt herself being lifted quite rapidly into the air, but just as soon as she felt like she was flying the sensation ceased and she found herself in a very dark room. A pure white light that was nearly blinding shone almost directly into her eyes, preventing her from seeing anything more than the silhouettes of two women. One of the women had a curvy figure and gossamer-like wings emanating from her back. If she looked hard enough she thought she could make out long pigtails falling from her head and nearly touching the floor. The other woman wore a skirt that looked similar to the kind she wore with her senshi uniform and had extremely long, straight hair that went past her back. In her right hand she held a staff that was taller than her and vaguely resembled a long, slender key.

"I knew you would make it here, as only you could," the mysterious woman whispered in a sweet, melodious voice that contained a mixture of joy and apprehension.

"Wait! Who are you? Where am I?" Usagi asked in complete confusion.

"Hmmm… It's so sad this poor girl doesn't recognize her own mother," the woman said solemnly, her voice slightly trailing off at the end.

"Mother…?" Usagi said hesitantly, searching her mind for the meaning of the word. She had just sneaked from her house. Her mother was at home, sound asleep, or at least she should have been, unless… Then the realization hit her, and hit her hard. "Queen Serenity?" she yelled in confusion and anxiety.

The woman, now exposed as that ancient Queen, nodded. She stepped forward so that Usagi could see her more clearly. The clicks of her heels against the hard marble floor reverberated about the room as she approached, stopping a few paces in front of Usagi. The figure that stood with her hands clasped before her was one of absolute resplendence. She wore a flowing white gown topped at the bust line by a white bow containing a gold crescent moon. Usagi could see her mother's silver pigtails matched the style of her own blond pigtails, odangos and all. Her sapphire blue eyes locked onto a pair of orbs almost identical in color and positively radiant. And yet, she could sense in those same eyes a depth of anguish that she had never before seen or experienced. She felt even her own state of misery did not compare to the sadness she witnessed from her mother. And yet, right in front of her, this gentle woman stood stoically, doing her utmost to conceal her own pain. How truly strong she must have been.

"You're in the Moon Palace, within a special room where we can combine the past with the present and the future without the utter destruction of everything," Queen Serenity said softly.

"Why am I here?" Usagi asked.

"I desperately needed to check up on you," Queen Serenity replied with a hint of sadness in her voice. "It was my last wish, to be able to see you in the future, to make sure your future was well." She exhaled a deep sigh. "But it appears not all is well after all. It seems you are deeply troubled and conflicted."

"Last wish… that means you're…"

"Yes, sadly, I'm no longer alive. Not in this world, at least. But the Silver Crystal granted my wish and gave me one last opportunity to see you."

Queen Serenity then walked up to Usagi and placed both hands on her shoulders. Usagi felt a sudden shock course through her body and a witnessed a bright flash of gold light that momentarily blinded her. When her eyes adjusted from the sudden blast of light she saw she was dressed in a white gown, the same gown she had worn before when her life was threatened by Malanche. The touch from her mother had involuntarily caused her to transform into Princess Serenity. Suddenly, a flood of emotions had overcome her and she started to cry. Queen Serenity placed an arm around her and Usagi fell into a warm embrace, burying her head into her mother's chest and tightly wrapping both arms around the elder sovereign's waist.

"Mother!" Usagi shouted in a muffled cry.

"Now, now, dear. I'm here," Queen Serenity whispered, gently lifting her head and wiping the tears away from Usagi's eyes. "Please, tell me what's bothering you."

"My friends… my senshi, they have abandoned me," Usagi responded in a cracked voice between sobs.

"What?" Queen Serenity said in shock. "How could this be?"

"I have no idea," Usagi sobbed. "They were just so angry, saying that they didn't want to have me around as their leader anymore… or at all…"

"W-wait… Leader? I don't understand. Isn't Venus the leader of the senshi?" Queen Serenity asked in confusion.

"Venus is supposed to be the leader? I thought I was," Usagi said. Her tears began to subside. Maybe they were right in not wanting her to be their leader anymore. She never was supposed to fill that role. But, it only answered one of her questions, and didn't explain why they wanted to completely abandon her. If all they wanted to do was give leadership of the senshi to Venus, or whomever, she was more than willing to give that up as long as she could continue to fight alongside them and remain friends with them.

"No, only a senshi may lead the assembly of solar system senshi, and historically that leader has been Sailor Venus. The job of all the senshi is to protect the solar system and the Silver Millennium's princess." Queen Serenity warmly gazed into Usagi's widened eyes, sending the point that she was the princess they were to protect. "The senshi of all the planets of the solar system, ever since the unification of the planets, made a sacred promise to protect this kingdom and to protect you. That is their duty. You do not have to lead the senshi in their battles or do anything else in that regard."

"But, what about me being Sailor Moon?" Usagi asked.

"What? Sailor… Moon? …You're a senshi?" Queen Serenity exclaimed in astonishment, momentarily abandoning her calm persona and involuntarily taking a step backwards, away from Usagi. The color began to fade from her face. "That cannot be. There must have been a mistake when I transported all of you away with the Silver Crystal."

"But, it's true. I am the senshi of the moon. We were all awakened to look for the princess and to fight Queen Beryl…"

"Beryl is back?" Queen Serenity asked in horror. Her body started to tremble at the thought of her old nemesis returning to conquer the Earth and destroy the remnants of the Silver Millennium in her absence.

"Yes, along with Queen Metalia."

"I-I thought I s-sealed her a-away…. The s-seal… the seal m-must not have been s-strong enough." Queen Serenity stammered. She collapsed to her knees, her whole body violently convulsing in agony, unable to maintain any semblance of calm any more. The ocean of painful emotions, of despair and suffering, she attempted to hold at bay flooded through her once her stoic façade fully crumbled. She covered her face with her hands as heavy tears streamed ferociously from her pale eyes. "I'm sorry! _I'm so sorry!_ You shouldn't have to deal with them again!" she moaned as she wept on the cold, unforgiving stone floor.

Usagi cautiously approached her mother, not knowing what she could possibly do, but feeling in her heart she had to say _something_. She couldn't bear to watch the poor woman drown in her misery any longer. The irony didn't escape her that she planned to console the woman who, just a few minutes prior, used all her strength and gentleness to comfort her. She bent to her knees and tenderly placed her hands on Queen Serenity's shoulders.

"It's okay, mother. It truly is all right. They will be defeated for good. I'll make sure of it. Believe in me…" Usagi whispered into Queen Serenity's ear in the most reassuring tone she could deliver. She didn't know how she planned to accomplish what she just promised. But in her heart, in her soul, she believed she could do it. She would regain her friends, and the group would defeat both Queen Beryl and Queen Metalia so that they could never return. That was the way it would end. She slowly moved her arms so that they lighly wrapped around her mother's neck and gently pulled her closer. The convulsions immediately ended as Usagi embraced her mother and the queen's body started to become warm and emit a faint white light. Usagi released a faint pink glow as she held her mother and felt her depression slowly evaporate. The two continued the silent hug for several minutes until it was clear Queen Serenity was fully calm.

"Yes, I believe in you my sweet child," Queen Serenity whispered as her tears finally ended. She slowly pushed herself up from the cold floor and stood tall, her blue eyes shimmering once again as her strength and confidence returned. She felt refreshed. The depression, apprehension, and guilt that she had been harboring for all those years were finally gone, and her soul could be truly at peace.

She sighed and then begrudgingly returned to the earlier portion of their discussion. "So, you are both a senshi in Sailor Moon as well as my heir," she said softly. She remained silent for a long while as she stood in deep contemplation. She looked back toward the other woman, the one holding the tall staff. "Do you have any idea what this means for the future?"

"Your daughter confuses me," the mysterious woman standing back in the shadows said with a low-pitched, somber voice. "There is not one vision I have for her future, but several, all with equal probabilities of occurrence. Her future is not planned by the stars, but entirely of her own choosing." She paused in meditation. "My deepest concern is what she ultimately decides to do, as the entire fate of the solar system depends on that decision."

Queen Serenity nodded and then looked back at Usagi. "So, apparently your fate is entirely in your hands. I don't know what you'll choose to do, but I believe whatever it is will be in everyone's best interest." She looked over Usagi for a few seconds and smiled. "Your existence as Sailor Moon very well could be beneficial for the fate of this planet if you believe in yourself and believe in your fellow senshi," she said sagely, her light and melodious voice returning. She paused looked over at the mysterious woman, then back at Usagi. "But, I can see where this would complicate things," she said in a more somber, worried tone.

"But, they never hated me before like they do now. We all got along very well. We were the best friends we ever had. Then, suddenly, this," Usagi said.

"Did they mention anything about their sacred promise?" Queen Serenity asked.

"No. I don't know if they themselves know about it. Luna told me about the promise a short while ago, but we don't know if the other senshi are aware."

"I am happy Luna is doing well and that she has remained loyal to you. However, I don't know what would suddenly make the senshi act like that."

Usagi looked at Queen Serenity with worried eyes. "I had a dream," she said so softly that the queen had to lean in closer to Usagi to hear her wavering voice. "I had a dream where the other senshi chased me. They kept chasing me and attacking me until finally… finally—" Usagi could barely get the words out of her throat— "until they ultimately killed me."

"Oh, dear!" Queen Serenity said with tears welling in her eyes. She knew dreams held immense power of prognostication, and if that were the case, then… she didn't want to contemplate such a result. Besides, it was only one of the possible outcomes. It didn't necessarily have to end like that, she told herself. She said she would believe in her daughter, and to believe meant to trust that she would be all right no matter the situation. Besides, what would excessive worrying do for a person who wouldn't be able to fix the situation anyway should it happen to occur? Nevertheless, it was something to at least take into consideration.

"The whole time they were calling me a fraud, an imposter, and they said I didn't deserve to have the Silver Crystal. I have no idea what they meant by that."

A spark ignited in Queen Serenity's mind. _"_Of course_ that's what's going on. Why didn't I think of it before?" _she thought. She was about to speak, to give Usagi the answer she so desperately needed, to give her an explanation of her dream, when the woman holding the tall staff shouted impertinently from the shadows.

"Queen Serenity! It's almost time!" the woman yelled. Both the queen and the princess jumped at the suddenness of her shout. Queen Serenity looked longingly into Usagi's moistened eyes for what ultimately would be the last time.

"My dearest Serenity, I'm afraid have to depart now," Queen Serenity said in a somber whisper that somehow captured her all her strength and all her compassion. She stepped toward Usagi and lovingly wrapped both her arms around her as she whispered into her ear. "I'm sorry I cannot further explain your dream. Please, just remember this: you are my daughter, my only daughter. You are Princess Serenity. Do not let anyone else say or believe otherwise, ever." Usagi draped both arms around her mother's waist and squeezed her as tightly as she could. She never wanted to let go. She knew it would be the last time she ever got to embrace her mother—her _real_ mother. In her heart she wished she could somehow go back in time, back to the original Silver Millennium. She would make sure Beryl and Metalia were killed with her own power, so that her mother never had to sacrifice herself using the Silver Crystal. But, she knew in her mind that it was impossible. The past happened and could not be changed. She could see her mother's presence gradually fade away, her body slowly becoming translucent. Usagi started to weep. She had just seen her mother for the first time in several millennia, and just as soon she was going to disappear forever. It was too much for her to bear.

"I'm so glad I got to see you this one last time. I love you so very, very much," Queen Serenity whispered as her physical existence faded to nothingness.

"I… love… you… too…" Usagi whispered as her arms snapped back into her body due to the sudden loss of the entity they were so tightly grasping. Her legs no longer possessed the strength to support her and she collapsed to the ground. The dark marble floor around her became wet with her tears. She cried the hardest and the loudest she had ever cried in her entire life.

The woman with the tall staff looked at the mess of a girl that was weeping and convulsing uncontrollably on the floor. _"Such is the fate of the stars and the will of the Silver Crystal,"_ she thought. She gave a sad sigh before pointing the staff at Usagi. A garnet sphere of light radiated from the tip of the staff and eventually filled the entire room with warm red light.

Moments later, Usagi found herself lying in the fluffy softness of her bed and not on the hard marble floor of the Moon Palace. Her pillow was soaked through with tears. She looked down at the floor and saw that Luna continued to sleep soundly. The alarm clock showed in faint red numbers that it was 4:23 in the morning. She must have fallen asleep again. She swore that she had snuck out of her bedroom, walked to the park, and then had the strangest and saddest experience of her life on the moon. Or was it in some alternate dimension. She wasn't sure. What she was certain about was that just getting to the park in the wee morning hours would have taken more than twenty minutes. So it must have been a dream. A wonderful and yet terribly cruel dream, but a dream nonetheless. She pushed the covers off of her and stepped out of bed. She let out an audible gasp as soon has her feet touched the ground.

In place of her pink pajamas, she was wearing a flowing white gown.


	11. Revelations

**Chapter 11: Revelations**

The image displayed in the mirror was ghastly. It showed a trembling girl whose pale cheeks were streaked by the stains of hundreds of tears. Her white barrettes had gradually detached themselves from her hair, allowing a twisted, sweaty mess of blond strands to fall across her face and partially occlude her eyes. She wore a gleaming white gown whose bust was trimmed in gold, but the stunning beauty of her dress conflicted with the sullen appearance and depressed mood of its inhabitant. She took a quaking hand and lifted the hair that covered her face. On her forehead, smack in the center and shining in brilliant gold, was an emblem of a crescent moon. She stood there for several silent minutes in utter shock, disbelieving that which she hoped and desperately prayed would be false. But, as the minutes ticked on, her mind gradually realized what her heart already knew and attempted to suppress. She had just witnessed the final expression of her mother's spirit. She had seen it, talked to it, shared with it her troubles, eased its misery, heard its advice, and received its love. And suddenly, it, her mother, her _real_ mother, was gone, forever. The mere thought of it brought upon the poor girl unbearable pain. Her only relief, if one ever could truly exist, was that while Princess Serenity had lost her mother, her other self, Usagi Tsukino, still had hers.

Usagi cupped her quivering hands, gathered into them some of the cold water that poured from the faucet, and splashed it on her tear-soaked face. The chilly water bounced off her skin with nary a flinch from the girl. Her entire body felt numb after she had expended so much energy expressing her grief. As soon as she had stepped from the bed she realized that what she thought was a dream was actually a terrible reality. She really did walk to the park alone in the darkness of the early morning. She did travel to the palace on the moon. She did meet with her mother. And she did see her disappear from existence for all eternity. When she looked down and saw herself wearing the legendary gown of the moon princess, she completely lost any and all grasp on her emotions and just collapsed to the floor awash in sorrow and soon in tears. She remained on the cold hardwood surface for almost an entire hour and did nothing but cry. Luna had been sound asleep, but the sobs and muffled wails shook the cat from her slumber. The feline and her most trusted adviser merely watched from a distance. She had no idea how or why Usagi had transformed into Princess Serenity, or what drove her into inconsolable sobbing. However, she was uniquely perceptive of her young charge and knew when to keep her distance, believing at that time it was best to let the girl continue until she was finished. She was absolutely right.

She gazed despondently into the mirror for a few more seconds before turning off the faucet and light and slowly trudging back to her bedroom. At the other end of the hall she could see her younger brother Shingo walking toward her. The sight shook her from the misery spell she had been locked in for so long. She still had a family after all. She still had a mother. The mother from her distant past might no longer exist, but the mother of her present remained and loved her deeply. There was no point in remaining miserable forever.

Shingo released a typical annoying grunt as soon as he saw his sister approaching him.

"Heh. Weird getup. You acting in a play or somethin' today?" he muttered.

"Why'd you ask?" she replied in confusion. Normally she would supply an equally irritating retort, but she had none available in her current state.

"Why else would you be wearing that strange dress? It sure as hell doesn't suit a lazy slob like you. And what the hell is that on your forehead?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

Usagi then realized that she was still dressed as Princess Serenity. Somehow she forgot to remove the transformation before she left the solitude of the bathroom. Given that she wasn't in control of the transformation in the first place—it seemed to happen only in special situations such as mortal danger or in the presence of her stately mother—she didn't know if she _could_ manually de-transform. But that wasn't the most pressing issue. She was discovered, and her secret identity was in jeopardy of being blown, by her annoying runt of a younger brother no less. She quickly attempted to read Shingo's thoughts as he stared at her garbed in the white gown. Should she tell him the truth? _Could_ she tell him? Would he even believe her, and if so, would he go on and blabber to everyone else, thus potentially risking her family's safety. After all, if the Dark Kingdom was ruthless enough to attack innocent civilians for energy to further their own evil aspirations, then assaulting the family of their primary threat would only be natural. A slight tremble coursed through her body as the thought pierced her mind. What would she do? She stood there in deep contemplation for what seemed to her an eternity, though in reality it was only a second, and realized there was only one thing she could do: protect her secret, and thus her family.

"Maybe, maybe not. What's it got to do with you?" she said mellifluously, ensuring to make every change in pitch as annoying as possible. She wasn't going to reveal her secret to her brother after all, and as such she had to play the part of annoying older sister once again.

Shingo chuckled. "I remember the last play you did when you halfway destroyed the set—and you weren't even on stage yet! You couldn't act your way out a paper bag. If you do have a play today, I feel _soooo_ sorry for that audience."

"_You're_ the one who's going to feel sorry, you little squirt!" she said in a muffled shout. She tried to grab Shingo so she could give him a noogie but he easily evaded her and she fell onto her face. To him it was typical Usagi, one more failed attempt in a litany of failed attempts to pester him that was spoiled by her clumsiness. What he didn't know was that she deliberately missed and planned her fall so that she would be as silent as possible, lest she wake her parents.

"Boy, you're such a klutz," he said with a laugh as he sauntered past her to the bathroom.

She looked up at her brother as he passed with a smile. _"He may be annoying as hell, but I love him very much,"_ she thought as she lifted herself from the floor and walked to her bedroom.

—|1|**2**|—

Usagi's eyes crossed and re-crossed as she struggled to get into focus the whiteboard at the front of the room. It barely was the middle of the day, not even lunch time, and yet she was exhausted. She barely had six hours of sleep last night, if even that much. She couldn't really tell. Though she was ostensibly sound asleep, her hellish nightmare served to drain more energy from her than any of her training sessions. That, followed by her meeting with her late mother was more than her body and mind could bear. It was good that she wasn't so melancholy anymore. She loved her mother. Thousands of years ago she loved that majestic woman who cared for her so devotedly. She cherished every minute of the woefully short time she had with her. The appearance of her mother's spirit only served to remind her just how truly and how deeply she loved her mother. But her mother was dead, and had been dead for millennia. Eventually, she had come to accept that there was nothing she could do for that aspect of her past. She could, and did, mourn her mother's passing, and was still doing so at the very moment. However, she knew in her heart she also had think and live for her present. And in her present, she knew that not being melancholy wasn't going to recoup a good four or five hours of sleep. She desperately needed a nap before meeting with Ami to start work on their group project. She just wanted to make sure her nap didn't occur during the middle of math class. In that she would be less than successful.

"Tsukino-san," said a stern male voice.

Usagi, her eyes practically glued shut and her head resting on her arms that were folded on top of an opened textbook, mumbled an unintelligible response.

"Tsukino-san," the voice said again, slightly louder.

"Yes…" Usagi muttered in reply.

"Tsukino-san, since you're so enthusiastic about listening to today's lesson, could you answer the question I just asked?"

"Forty-two," she said groggily without bothering to lift her head.

"Hmm…. Amazingly, that's actually correct," he said, slightly stunned and looking back and forth at the drowsy blonde and his textbook. He soon recovered. "However, could you explain how you got to your answer?"

Usagi was perplexed. She somehow managed to correctly answer the question, but she didn't have a clue what he asked in the first place. She opened her eyes and lifted her head from the desk. The sudden influx of light to her eyes caused a painful stinging sensation as she hadn't used them for several minutes. She realized she had been asleep for much of the class period, despite her best attempts to keep herself awake. It was only when Kenji Watanabe, her math teacher, spoke her name that she snapped out of her slumber. She quickly searched the blackboard to see if there was anything written that could help, but to no avail.

"Well?" Kenji asked impatiently.

"I… don't know. I didn't hear the question," she admitted dejectedly.

"I'm sure you didn't. You may look at page 104 if you want to know the question," he said. The piercing chimes of a bell suddenly sounded, signifying the end of the class period. "Well, you all are free to go," he said, pausing before following up with, "Tsukino-san, can you come see me at my desk right now?"

"Yes…" she whispered. She trudged to the front of the room, all the while attempting to avoid the other students that were rushing off to get to the next class.

"Tsukino-san, I've noticed that you've been improving a lot in this class recently. Your homework grades have risen quite dramatically, you're paying more attention, and you're actually able to answer some of my questions. So I was shocked and a bit disappointed to see you sound asleep in the middle of class today. Is there any reason why you couldn't stay awake and pay attention?"

Usagi pointed her tired, paled eyes down at the floor. "I just had a horrible night last night and couldn't sleep." It was an understatement. She swiftly dropped her arms at her side and bowed deeply in a display that slightly stunned Kenji. "I'm so sorry. It'll never happen again. I promise."

Kenji looked up at the girl as she remained bowed in front of him. "Normally I'd send you to detention, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt this one time."

"Thank you so much, Watanabe-sensei," Usagi said softly. She stood up, ran to her desk to grab her shoulder bag, and then ran out the door toward her English class.

The remainder of Usagi's school day was uneventful. Her impromptu nap during math class allowed her to remain awake during Haruna's English class, which was fortunate as that harsh teacher was not remotely as forgiving as Kenji. She found some more time to sleep during lunch, napping in a secluded area on the school's rooftop overlooking the athletic fields. Three more classes then followed—history, gym, and art—during which she managed to stay awake and focused, though the latter two classes didn't require quite as much focus. When the bell rang to signal the end of school, she wasted no time leaving the building and heading for the central library, practically sprinting the entire way. She wanted to make sure she was there early—not merely on time, and _certainly_ not late. The library was only a ten minute walk from the campus. She made it there in four.

She bolted through the front doors of the library and, suddenly, came to a dead stop. The immense size of the place overwhelmed her. Everywhere stood massive shelves completely filled with books. She was only used to the school's own library which was pathetically small compared to this. And even then she rarely used it. This was where Ami spent much of her time when she wasn't in school, in cram school after normal school, or with the other girls. This clearly was Ami's domain, and Usagi was not remotely in the same league. As she looked around in a slight daze, bowed over and panting heavily to catch her breath from all the running, she realized she had no clue where to begin. At that time, she felt a hand upon her right shoulder and heard the calming voice of an older woman.

"Excuse me, may I help you?" the woman asked softly.

Usagi looked up and saw that the words came from the same person who was holding her shoulder. That person, the older woman with the soothing voice, was one of the librarians.

"Oh, sorry!" Usagi said as she hurriedly collected herself and turned her attention to the woman. "I have a project from school and I came here to look up some info for it, but… I don't know where to begin looking." Her voice ultimately sounded confused and dejected, and her eyes fell to the floor. She kicked herself mentally. She should have paid more attention when her class was being taught how to use the library. But, it was too late, and she was standing there completely embarrassing herself.

"Don't worry. I'll help you in any way I can. That's why I'm here," the librarian said with a light smile. "Now, what is the project you're working on?"

"It's for my English class. We—my partner and I—have to come up with an original dialogue based on an English book and present it."

"English book project…," the librarian mumbled to herself as she considered what to do to help the girl in front of her. Then she seemed to have a spark. "Ah!" she exclaimed excitedly, as if she knew exactly what Usagi was referring to. Indeed, she did. "I see now. It's the same project that one of our most frequent patrons is working on. She's extremely bright, and she may be able to help you even more than I could." She pointed toward a distant corner of the main hall. In that distance, Usagi could see Ami sitting next to a tall stack of books, her face practically buried in one of them as she was engrossed in reading. She let out a muted squeal upon seeing the blue-haired girl.

"Do you know her?" the librarian asked excitedly as she noticed Usagi's reaction.

"Um… yeah… she's actually my partner."

"Well, you're very lucky. With a partner like her you should do very well on this project," the librarian said, smiling. The irony was not lost on Usagi.

"_Yeah, but only if we can get along without yelling at each other. How did things ever end up like this?"_ Usagi thought sadly.

She slowly walked to the desk in the back of the library where Ami was seated, pouring through several books. They were all in English from what she could surmise.

"You're late," Ami said in terse whisper, her blue eyes locked onto the pages of the book she held in one hand.

"Late? How am I late? It's three forty—" Usagi looked down at her watch for a moment, then back at Ami— "three forty-five. We said we were meeting at four!" she said indignantly in a muffled shout so she wouldn't disturb all the other patrons.

"Well, I'm here now, and you're here now, so I guess that matter is moot," Ami whispered. She shoved a relatively thin (by Ami's standards, massive by anyone else's) book in Usagi's face with her left hand without looking up from her text. "Here. Read this. This is the book we're going to be doing for our project."

"So you decided this all by yourself without waiting for me?" Usagi asked, irritated at not having any say in the matter.

Ami finally looked up from her book and stared right into Usagi's eyes. Her face revealed she held far more anger toward the blonde than what she released during their previous meeting, and she was doing her utmost to not erupt at her in the middle of the library. "I figured this way would be the quickest," she said more forcefully, but still at a whisper. She looked down at the book she was reading while shoving the other book further into Usagi's face.

Usagi snatched the book from Ami's hand. She stomped to a chair directly across from the other girl and slouched down into it with a huff. She felt anger boiling inside her. Anger she needed to calm in a hurry. She closed her eyes and took several slow deep breaths, each exhalation dissipating a small bit of her resentment of Ami's insult of her intelligence. When her eyes reopened she found them connected with the top of Ami's downward-turned head. She was practically ignoring Usagi, despite the fact they're supposed to be working together. _"This is not going to go very well,"_ she thought. But, somehow, the project had to be done, which meant first figuring out _how_ it was going to be done.

"What are we going to do for the actual _dialogue_ part of the project?" Usagi asked with her eyes still focused on the top of Ami's head.

"Don't worry about that. I already have some ideas and plans for what to do," she whispered without bothering to look at Usagi. "Now, please just make sure you read the book, hopefully by tomorrow so we can finish this as _soon_ as possible."

Usagi sighed. If this was what passed for conversation, then there was no point in even trying to talk. And clearly she wasn't going to have any real say in anything except for _maybe_ a few parts that Ami couldn't do herself. But that wouldn't happen for a while, later on when the bulk of the assignment was complete, she reasoned. She opened the book and skimmed over the first few pages. Her English wasn't quite as good as Ami's, or Minako's for that matter, but she actually was quite proficient despite all previous appearances to the contrary. As she flipped through the pages, she found herself thinking that the blue-haired girl ended up choosing a pretty interesting story for the project.

"You have read this book already, right?" Usagi asked in another vain attempt to spark some form of civil conversation.

"Yes."

"Then what are all the other books for?" She nodded her head toward the other books despite Ami not even looking at her gestures.

"Some light reading while waiting for you."

"Sheesh…"

Usagi was astounded that Ami considered the mountain of books that surrounded her light reading. She was afraid to even imagine what the girl would call heavy reading. In any case, she went back to reading the book that Ami gave her. The story absolutely gripped her by the end of the first chapter, and she knew her burning desire to get to the conclusion would allow her to finish the book well before the end of the day. She contemplated going home and finishing the book, but she figured if she stayed there might have been an opening to ask Ami just what it was she meant when they last spoke. Any bit of clarity would have immensely helped her mental state.

Unfortunately, there was no such opening. The pair sat across from one another mostly in complete silence for the duration of their time in the library. Usagi would attempt time and time again to make conversation or a suggestion—and she actually had a few truly useful suggestions—but every time she spoke she was met either with a brusque response or an annoyed glare from Ami. After a while she would just write down any suggestion she had in her notebook and hope that Ami would give her some credit for thinking on her own and attempting to contribute to the group project.

About four hours after the two met, Ami closed the book she was reading and placed it alongside the others. She placed her notebook and pens in her bag and stood up from the desk. The sudden movements tore Usagi's attention from her book, where she was about halfway done with the story.

"I'm going home now. I hope you'll be done by then. I'll let you know tomorrow what I plan to do for the other part of the project," Ami whispered coldly, her gaze somewhere off in the distance. At no time did those icy blue eyes actually fall on the blonde. She then turned and started to walk away from the desk and from Usagi.

Usagi hurriedly tore a piece of paper from her notebook and stuck it in between the pages of the book to mark her place before stuffing the book in her bag. She hoped that Ami had checked the book out before giving it to her, as she had no plans of stopping at the front desk to do that herself. She could deal with any complaints of incidental theft later. Instead, her mind was entirely focused on making sure she caught up to Ami before she couldn't find her anymore. She bolted up from her chair and sprinted toward the front doors just as Ami was going through them.

"Ami, wait!" she yelled.

"There's no need to follow me home, Usagi!" Ami said harshly as she continued to walk.

"Look, I know you don't want to partner with me. I know you don't want anything to do with me right now, but… can't you at least recognize that I'm more than just dead weight and that I'm actually contributing something to this project?" Usagi asked with both determination and desperation in her voice.

Ami stopped and looked over her shoulder at Usagi, her pair of deep ocean blue irises meeting the sapphire blue orbs of the distressed blonde. "It seems you are more useful than I thought."

"So, it means you're actually going to listen to my suggestions and not completely ignore me?" Enthusiasm filled Usagi and her eyes brightened in kind. There might have been hope for her—for _them_—after all.

"Maybe," Ami replied brusquely. She turned back around and started to walk at a brisk speed again.

Usagi's face blanched and her eyes became at first sullen, then red as tears welled from within. The small seed of hope she held was crushed. She sprinted up to, then past Ami, spun around, and stopped, somehow finding the strength within her trembling body to hold her arms out at her sides and block Ami's path.

"_Maybe?_ That's _IT_?" she yelled in pain and desperation. "Can't you see I'm trying as hard as I can to improve, to be good enough?" Tears started to fall from her eyes.

Ami stopped and glared directly at Usagi with narrowed, furious eyes. She was about to say something that not even she thought she was capable of saying, and in hindsight might have regretted saying had she managed to speak. However, before she could open her mouth, a piercing shriek erupted from a nearby alleyway and burst through the palpable tension that had built up between the two girls. It was a painful cry from a young woman under attack. Despite the strain and hostility, Usagi and Ami both knew what was occurring and that they had to put their issues aside and perform their duty. Usagi wasted no time in rushing to the source of the shout, knowing that this would be her first battle with an actual youma since that fateful day last week. Ami followed closely behind, her transformation pen already in her hand.

They sprinted around the corner into the alley, then around another corner to where they heard the woman. By then they had already transformed into Sailor Moon and Sailor Mercury. The scene that greeted the two sailor senshi was one of absolute horror. A woman wearing a close-fitting, pale-violet dress and with long dark-brown hair had collapsed into an unconscious heap on top of a pile of garbage. Standing over the woman was a man wearing grey trousers and a dark-grey long-sleeved jacket trimmed in pale turquoise. He wore a white cape that was clasped to his jacket by white and blue epaulettes trimmed in gold. Silver hair that fell past his shoulders waved in a light breeze that flowed up the alley. He slowly turned when he sensed the presence of the two girls, staring at them with deadly serious blue-grey eyes.

"Kunzite!" yelled Ami as assertively as she could, but, as best as she tried, she could not hide the fear in her voice. She was yelling at one of the Shitennou after all, and the strongest of the four at that. It would not be a normal fight. It never was when the Shitennou were involved. "Get away from her now!"

"Ah, the Sailor Senshi. And right on time, too. Everything is going according to plan," Kunzite said mockingly with a smirk across his lips. He looked at the two senshi who had shifted into defensive stances. "Only two of you, but it seems that the one I'm looking for is finally here."

"What are you talking about?" Usagi shouted.

"Ah, Sailor Moon, it's _you_ I'm talking about, of course. I've missed seeing you for _so long_, but now that you're here I'm happy." Kunzite pulled his lips into a sarcastic grin. "And I'm sure Queen Beryl will be equally pleased. It's been _boring_ just having to deal with your friends." His tone suddenly shifted from sardonic to serious. "Now, if you have any concern for this poor woman's life, you'll come with me."

"Never!" Usagi shouted in anger. "And you won't hurt that poor woman either, not while I'm here!" She lifted her right arm into the air and began to say words that she hadn't spoken in a long time. Words whose value in the situations she often used them she didn't particularly know but were strangely comforting to her. "In the name of the Moon, I will punish you!" were those words, and she delivered her familiar pose as she uttered them.

Kunzite raised a hand, and upon that movement the unconscious woman emitted an ominous silver-grey glow and slowly levitated into the air, her body remaining horizontal and her silky brown hair falling to the ground. Kunzite kept his eyes locked on Usagi the entire time.

"Sailor Moon, do you have any idea what your fellow senshi have been up to during your absence?" Kunzite asked with a strangely calm voice.

"What absence? I haven't gone anywhere!" Usagi responded, glaring at Kunzite with furious eyes. Ami slowly shifted her gaze back and forth from Usagi to Kunzite.

"Hmmm… haven't gone anywhere, you say. What was your last battle… ah, that's right, Dionaea. That would be that walking plant in case you didn't know," Kunzite said, his sarcastic tone returning. "Zoicite's idea," he added as an afterthought. He laughed an evil laugh as a smirk spread across his face. "That was a week ago. Did you think that we took a break from serving our esteemed Queen Beryl during that time?"

Usagi's hardened expression faltered slightly as she quickly pondered the implications of Kunzite's statement.

"You call sending out those pathetic youmas a 'service' to your leader?" Ami scoffed. However the slight wavering in her voice as she spoke revealed a latent concern she held, that all the senshi held, that was revived by Kunzite's words and exacerbated by Usagi's presence.

Kunzite chuckled and shook his head after hearing Ami's insult. "Ah, Sailor Mercury, do you really think the youmas you fought were pathetic? What a shame. And yet they call _you_ the genius of the group," he said mockingly. His gravitas returned as he turned to Usagi. "Sailor Moon, I will ask you only once more to come with me."

"No! Never!" Usagi shouted defiantly in response.

"Very well," Kunzite said. He closed the hand he held out, the hand responsible for levitating the woman from the ground, into a fist. Immediately the unconscious woman burst into a flash of light and then, mysteriously, completely disappeared.

"_What the hell did you just do to her?_" Usagi yelled in confusion, anger, and fear.

"Don't worry about it now," Kunzite said. He walked toward Usagi until he was about three feet away from her. Her muscles reflexively tensed and she took a step back, unsure of what he was about to do next. He looked directly into her anxious eyes. "We will meet again, I guarantee it," he said softly but menacingly. He then shifted his gaze to Ami, who also stiffened upon sensing his close proximity. "If you think our youmas are pathetic, then surely you won't mind facing them yet again." He then stepped back from the two girls, lifted his right arm into the air, and disappeared within an onyx-black cloud of smoke.

Usagi turned to her fellow senshi. "Ami, you guys were fighting youmas without me?" she asked indignantly. She was annoyed that she lost opportunities to fight against the Dark Kingdom's youmas. It was her newfound sense of pride kicking in that she gained from her training combined with the duty she always felt. However, her annoyance was overshadowed by her anguish. She was hurt by the idea her fellow senshi had so little confidence in her abilities and distrusted her so much that they didn't bother to even notify her of the attacks.

"Well, it wasn't like you were of much value when you were with us, so we decided to not call you and to deal with the youmas ourselves," Ami said softly, yet coldly, adding to the pain Usagi felt.

They heard the rumble of a loud explosion behind them and saw an equally large explosion spilling forth bright red light in front of them. The pair instinctively ducked and shielded their faces with their arms. When they dropped their arms, they saw they were surrounded by three large humanoid beings, each one at about seven feet tall. All three were covered in thick, rough charcoal-grey skin that was covered in dark-green blotches. Their faces contained crimson eyes with deep black pupils that stared at the girls with evil wrath. A pair of small pointy horns light grey in color stuck from the top of their heads. They all wore jet black cloaks but the hue of their trim varied, with one wearing a crimson-trimmed cloak and the other two wearing cloaks trimmed in pale blue. The two youmas wearing blue-trimmed cloaks held dull brownish-grey short swords in their hands. The youma in red held a black staff equal to it in height that contained a faded yellow orb at the top. The youma with the staff and one of the youmas wielding a sword stood in front of the two girls, while the third youma stood behind them, all about thirty feet away from the senshi.

"These were the youmas you guys fought?" Usagi asked Ami, turning back and forth to keep track of all three youmas.

"Yeah, and we defeated them. Or, at least, we thought we did," Ami responded. Her voice trailed off with the last sentence.

Usagi glared at Ami. "Well, _clearly_ you guys didn't defeat them, or else we wouldn't be seeing them again!" she yelled angrily. She then turned her attention back to the youmas. She was determined to soundly defeat them and show Ami, and in effect all of the girls, that she was of immeasurable value.

The two youmas clad in blue-trimmed cloaks charged at Usagi and Ami with swords held above their heads. Ami immediately dived to the ground and out of the way as soon as she saw them move. However, Usagi continued to stand in her place. Ami looked on as Usagi waited until the two youmas were within two strides of her and then somersaulted away from them—and directly toward the third youma. Usagi could sense that the youma wearing the red-trimmed cloak and holding the staff was immensely more powerful than the other two, and she wanted to confront that one first.

"Ami, I need you to take on the other two youmas while I fight this one," Usagi said in a commanding tone while ducking to avoid the staff that the youma swung at her head.

"What? Why do you get one while I get two?" Ami complained.

"_Just trust me this once! Please!_" Usagi snapped.

Ami sighed and turned her attention to the two youmas that had charged at them. She was somewhat familiar with the two, having fought them before, but with the other girls present and never alone. Analysis and tactical planning were her strengths, and her physical abilities were purely defensive, so she had to think hard to come up with a way to attack not one but two youmas. She figured that, at the very least, she needed some sort of diversion so she could construct a better plan of attack. She extended her arms in front of her and created a small blue sphere of water, then spun around once and spread her arms outward while shouting "Sabão Spray", causing the sphere to turn into a large cloud of bubbles that completely engulfed the two youmas. While they were disoriented and blinded by the bubbles, she leaped away from them to find a place to hide and analyze them further. That place ended up being a dumpster about fifty feet away from the battle between Usagi and the staff-wielding youma.

Usagi didn't have experience fighting the youmas that Ami had, but she did have her training, which definitely was useful in that fight. She reasoned the particular youma she fought was equally adept at using magic as well as physical attacks given his use of the staff. She didn't know what kind of magic the youma would wield. Unfortunately, it wasted very little time in revealing its repertoire of magical attacks to her. The youma smashed the butt end of the staff into the ground, causing the gem to glow a bright red color. A second later, a wall of red flame burst from the orb directly toward the blonde, who leaped high into the air to avoid being burnt. The flames evaporated the cloud of bubbles that confounded the other two youmas. It then pointed the staff at her and fired a bolt of green lightning at her just as she was falling back to the ground. She contorted her body mid-air to avoid the electrical attack and ended up landing on the ground upside-down, her arms being the only thing preventing her head from smashing the pavement. She quickly picked herself up and leaped sideways to avoid being hit by a bright gold chain of pure energy that was emitted from the orb. At that point she knew exactly what the magical abilities of the youma were, and that knowledge terrified her.

Ami leaped from the dumpster as she noticed the two youmas that were blinded by her bubbles had composed themselves and were giving chase once again. She knew she didn't have much in terms of offense, which was part of the reason she was angry at Usagi for leaving her to fight two youmas. However, her time in the dumpster gave her the opportunity to scan the youmas with her minicomputer. The light-blue transparent visor covering her face showed her surroundings and the figures of the two youmas in white outlines. However, standing out in yellow were the swords the two youmas held in their hands. When she fought them previously, her computer did not notice anything peculiar about their weapons. But that was because they fought each youma one at a time. With all three youmas united, she could see that the weapons were more than mere swords. Ami and Usagi would very quickly witness just what made those swords special.

The staff-wielding youma lifted the black implement high into the air. The orb lodged within shined a multitude of colors, rapidly alternating from bright red to light blue to gold to jade green. Suddenly, two bolts of black lightning raced from the orb to the swords held by the two other youma, causing the blades to change color from dull grey to bright yellow for one youma and to dark red for the other. Usagi turned to see Ami running around a corner with the two sword-bearing youmas in tow. She immediately sensed that Ami would be in trouble so she leaped away from the staff-wielding youma and chased after the water senshi as fast as her legs could take her. Her training paid off immensely there, as she took very little time to make up the distance. When she rounded the corner she skidded to a stop just in time to see Ami with her back pressed against the brick wall of a dead end and the two youmas about ten feet away. The glowing swords the two youmas held high above their heads were in the process of being swung down with incredible speed. When the blades were horizontal to the ground the dark-red sword released a ball of fire that raced at Ami while the gold-colored sword turned into a bright orange chain made of pure energy that whipped toward the cowering girl.

"Ami-chan!" Usagi yelled in horror as she leaped into the air and flew toward the blue-haired girl in an attempt to shield her fellow senshi from the attacks. As she approached she saw a human-like figure clad in black jump right into her path and collide with her, diverting her path away from Ami and toward a mound of trash-filled bags. The pile of garbage cushioned her fall and allowed her to see a man with a black cape and black top hat standing over Ami, his cape acting to shield the two from the attacks. Her heart sank into her stomach, if not even deeper.

The man in the black cape and hat assisted Ami from the ground with his left hand. He put his other arm around Ami and pulled her closer to his body, lifting her up slightly while he bent down to place his lips upon Ami's in a delicate kiss. He then turned to face Usagi, his dark-blue eyes burning with anger as he looked upon her.

"Usagi, what the _hell_ do you think you're doing leaving Ami alone to fight two youmas?" he yelled furiously.

Usagi stood up from the pile of garbage and dusted herself off. She didn't bother looking at the two standing against the brick wall. Her eyes were fixed on the two youmas and the third, staff-wielding youma that was dropping from the sky ready to deliver another attack. Partly, she wanted to maintain her focus on the three youmas and be ready to dodge if they attacked, but the other reason for not looking back was that she couldn't stand the sight of her former boyfriend. It made her sick to her stomach. That he apparently was romantically involved with Ami made it all the more revolting.

"Doing what you guys couldn't do," she said in a soft voice brimming with rage. She sighed and closed her eyes. Her figure began to emit a bright pink glow as she stood there in deep concentration. The lead youma lifted his staff once again, charging the swords of the other two youmas as before. Its own staff then turned bright red, the orb exuding a multitude of different colors. The other two youmas lifted their swords in anticipation of performing attacks similar to the types delivered against Ami. Usagi remained motionless as the two youmas dropped their swords and the third smashed the end of its staff into the pavement. A ball of red flame, a bolt of green lightning, and a golden whip of energy all raced toward her with a deafening roar.

"Usagi-chan! What are you doing? Run!" Ami shouted as the attacks approached.

"Don't worry about her, Ami!" Mamoru shouted in complete dismissal of Usagi's well-being.

Calmly, almost nonchalantly even, Usagi grabbed the Moon Stick that appeared in front of her and erected a shield of pure white energy that deflected the attacks. She then opened her eyes and gazed upon the trio of youmas that were just moments away from oblivion. Her normally sapphire blue eyes were practically red, a reflection of the intense anger that had built inside of her over the past minute, when Mamoru arrived. That rage was not caused by the youmas _per se_, but they would be the ones to feel its deadly effects. She lifted the Moon Stick high above her head, spun around so rapidly she became a blur, and then pointed the stick at the three youmas while yelling "Moon Twilight Flash". Several large spheres of pure energy burst from the Moon Stick and flew toward the three youmas. Unlike in previous uses where the spheres were solid white, those spheres were a brilliant mixture of pink and white. The balls of energy smashed into each of the youmas, instantly causing the two sword-wielding youmas to explode with a burst of gold light and disappear. The third, lead youma resisted death for a few seconds, its orb turning white in an attempt to absorb the energy of the attack. However, the ferocity of her assault overwhelmed the youma and it soon disappeared in a violent explosion of light. The Moon Stick then disappeared from her hands and the pink glow that surrounded her figure faded. She walked away from Ami and Mamoru without turning even a glance in their direction.

"Usagi!" yelled Ami as she started to run after Usagi.

"The next time you guys are in a fight, call me," Usagi replied softly in a harsh, angry tone while keeping her back to them.

"Usagi, wait!" Ami called out as she furiously ran to catch up to Usagi, leaving Mamoru behind. As she approached within arms-reach of Usagi, she saw the blonde suddenly disappear from in front of her. She looked up and was stunned to see the girl, by then wearing her school uniform, walking away from her on the roof of a three-story building across the street. She had no idea how Usagi could manage such a long and high jump. She slumped to the ground and tears started to fall from her eyes.

"I'm so sorry for ever doubting you, Usagi-chan," she whispered, her morose eyes staring blankly at the spot where she last saw Usagi. Mamoru walked to her side and placed his arms around her to comfort her. She buried her face into his shoulder and released a storm of tears.

Floating in the air high above the cityscape a man in a sharp grey uniform and fluttering white cape smirked. He looked down at a young girl with long blond pigtails as she walked across a rooftop. He continued shadowing the girl, his figure floating hundreds of feet above the surface. He stopped about ten minutes later when the girl slowly walked into a red-tiled, two-story house.

"Now I know who you are, Sailor Moon," he said to himself with sarcastic glee. "Don't be surprised to see me again when you least expect it… _U- sa- gi_."


	12. Reconciliation

**Chapter 12: Reconciliation**

Usagi stormed into her bedroom and threw herself as violently as she could onto her bed, her face buried into the cushions and large, heavy tears falling uncontrollably from her eyes. She maintained the hard façade for as long as she could in front of _them_, Ami and Mamoru. However, alone in her sanctuary, away from the man she wished to never see again and the last person she ever thought would take that man from her, she let all the emotions wash over her. Hate, despair, confusion, loneliness, depression, frustration, and anger—she experienced them all, at times simultaneously. The secret that Ami had futilely tried to conceal from Usagi was revealed in a brutally direct manner. Ami and Mamoru were more than just friends now. They very much were romantically involved, more so than Mamoru ever was with Usagi.

She mentally smacked herself. How could she have missed it? She should have seen it coming a long time ago, with the way the two spent much more time together than usual and less time with her. It was always with the excuse of Mamoru helping Ami with her advanced studies. That must have contributed to the emotional distance that gradually separated her from Ami and her ex-boyfriend, let alone the other girls. Whether the suave Mamoru initiated the romance or the normally shy Ami found her resolve and actively stole her boyfriend, she didn't care to know or find out. It was what it was, and to her it was a blatant act of betrayal. Not just a betrayal of friends but a betrayal of a senshi toward her princess. If Mamoru had left her for any other girl on the planet she would have cared far less. Sure, she had no real plans of trying to regain Mamoru's love the way she worked immeasurably hard to better herself and regain her friendships. But, it still hurt her to see Mamoru with another girl just like that, and the knowledge that it was one of her friends and senshi made the pain immeasurably worse.

She buried her face deeper into her pillow as the tears fell harder and the sobs roared louder. Her mind studied in excruciating detail the events of last Tuesday and the weeks leading up to that fateful day, the day her friends all but abandoned her, and all the dreams she had experienced since. What really was going on? That question went much deeper than the transient lives of five teenage girls and a man on Earth and raised serious concerns about the futures of six illustrious kingdoms.

Luna carefully approached the trembling, violently weeping girl. She had endured so much pain and heartbreak in so little time that it was an absolute miracle she could still function. She sat down beside her charge, her face lowered so she could peer into Usagi's dulled, tear-filled eyes.

"Luna…" Usagi whispered so quietly it was almost inaudible. "Ami… Ma-Mamoru…" She began to choke up as tears fell more furiously than ever before.

"Usagi, it's okay," Luna said softly and as soothingly as she could muster. Even with just those two words she sensed and understood everything her charge was trying to say.

Usagi suddenly pounded her mattress with her right hand so hard that Luna thought that she almost punched a hole clean through it.

"Is there no hope?" she managed to choke out between sobs.

"Hope?" Luna whispered, slightly confused.

"That I will ever get my friends back again," Usagi whispered somewhat hoarsely as she turned to look at Luna with the most pitiful look in her sullen eyes the black cat had ever seen.

"_Poor, poor girl. Why does all of this have to happen to her? What has she done to truly deserve this?"_ Luna pondered. An expression of sorrow momentarily radiated across her amber-colored eyes. _"If I had to go through even a tiny fraction of what she has experienced, I don't know how I could live. I don't know if I could survive."_ Her body began to shudder slightly and her eyes moistened. That terrible pall of depression wanted to blanket Luna the way it smothered Usagi, but somehow she resisted. _"I need to stay strong… for Usagi's sake,"_ she thought. _"Usagi can't see me be as heartbroken as she is. It would kill her. I… I just can't have that happen. I… love her too much for that."_

With that, Luna took a long, deep sigh to cleanse herself of the despair she had started to feel. She still believed in Usagi and wholeheartedly believed that she would prevail. All she had to do was convince her princess to believe in herself once more. She slowly walked right up to Usagi's face and softly nuzzled her head against the despondent girl's cheeks. Her fur was soaked by the tears that continued to fall heavily from Usagi's eyes and streak down her pale face. Yet as much as she hated getting wet, she hated Usagi's crestfallen mood much more, and thus was undaunted in her attempt to console the girl.

"You definitely will get them back," Luna whispered in the most comforting tone she could produce.

"How? How can I? I've done everything I could and… nothing," Usagi moaned. "It's all been for nothing…"

"I don't believe that, Usagi-chan," Luna said softly while continuing to caress the girl. "I don't believe that one bit."

"But… it's true. Even as hard as I worked to improve myself, and to prove that to Ami, she still doesn't want to even be around me," Usagi said between sniffles. "She… they… don't trust me. And it's like they have no use for me anymore—that they don't… _need_ me anymore."

She paused for a moment as the idea that she had just uttered reverberated in her mind. It wasn't just that her senshi were annoyed that she was a poor fighter and typically got in the way. Nor was it that her friends thought she was lazy and ditzy and, though sweet, not terribly bright and a horrible student. If it were just that, they surely would have taken the time to help her improve her fighting skill or her grades, and at times they had attempted to do just that. But they never, _ever_, would have quit and given up on Usagi as they were _friends_. They would have stuck with it no matter how long it took for the blonde to eventually catch up. They didn't. They abandoned her, and they did so because they didn't need to have her around anymore. No matter by how much she improved as a student or as a fighter, they didn't need her. Not anymore. Or at least, that was what Usagi had construed. But even then that interpretation didn't make perfect sense to her and it left a lot of questions unanswered.

Luna pulled back slightly and stared intently into Usagi's eyes. "Usagi, you absolutely _are_ needed, and wanted," she said with an unabashed intensity that startled the girl. For a moment her tears and sobbing ceased. "Without you, what good is this world, this planet? Hell, what good is the entire solar system? _You_ are far more important and useful than any of them!"

"Luna…" Usagi whispered in amazement of Luna's directness. A tiny glimmer of light and hope shined in her tear-moistened eyes. _"Maybe she's right,"_ she thought with a tiny smile briefly gracing her lips. But it was all too brief and the fleeting smile disappeared, replaced by the same dejected pout and dim, morose eyes she previously wore.

"But… still… even if you're right… I need them as much as they need me. And I can't seem to get them back," Usagi whispered. She sank her face back down into her already-soaked pillow and continued to cry silently.

"Usagi, I—"

Luna was about to say more reassuring words, but she was interrupted by a creaking sound caused by the opening of the bedroom door. She immediately froze and collapsed to Usagi's bed, pretending as she always hated to do to be a stuffed toy. However, it was what she had to do so that she would accidentally reveal her princess's secret. She didn't know whether it was the impact of Usagi punching her bed or some other impetus, but at that moment her mother Ikuko hurriedly walked through the door. It was instantly clear that the sole purpose for walking upstairs and to the girl's bedroom was the extreme concern she had for her daughter. She didn't quite know what it was, but she could feel, almost before she opened the door, that something wasn't quite right. She immediately sat down on the bed and held Usagi in a gentle hug in an attempt to begin consoling the sulking mass of depression that was her daughter.

"Usagi, dear, what's wrong?" Ikuko asked with absolute motherly compassion.

Usagi slowly turned her face from the pillow and looked up at her mother. She pondered for a slight second where to begin before settling on starting from the beginning.

"Mamoru… Mamoru broke up with me, and… and he's seeing Ami instead!" Usagi cried. She lifted herself up from the bed and tightly wrapped both arms around her mother while burying her face into her shoulder. Ikuko started to slowly rock back and forth while softly petting her back to console her.

"Don't worry my sweet child, I'm here," Ikuko whispered calmly into Usagi's ear. She held her daughter as gently and lovingly as she could in complete silence for several minutes. No words truly needed to be spoken, as Usagi fully felt and understood her mother's true love for her. Despite whatever history she had as the princess of the moon, she was Ikuko's daughter. She was just as much Ikuko's daughter as she was Queen Serenity's daughter, and both mothers always gave as much love to her as they possibly could offer. Usagi's tears slowly started to recede and she eventually became far less despondent. As she held her daughter, Ikuko could sense the immense burden of a week's worth of emotional pain.

"I'm always here for you, my sweet Usagi," Ikuko said softly as she slowly moved Usagi so she could gaze upon her tear-stained face. Her serene sepia-toned eyes attempted to instill the same calmness into Usagi's moistened blue eyes. "I will help you through whatever problems you have for as long as I live. I do it because I love you, and you're my only daughter. All you have to do is let me know. You don't have to feel your pain alone."

Usagi nodded slowly. What her mom said was absolutely true. She didn't need to shoulder the burden of so much pain and misery alone. The more she thought about it, the more she knew in her mind and in her heart that she needed to eventually tell her mother _everything_.

"Ma-Mamoru broke up with me a week ago, mama," Usagi mumbled slowly. Tears continued to fall but much more slowly than before. "I haven't been able to contact him for days beforehand, and then when I went to his apartment to talk, he told me he didn't love me."

"Do you know what made him think that all of a sudden?" Ikuko asked carefully.

Usagi slowly shook her head. "No… and, a part of me doesn't care to know," she said dejectedly, but with a slight tinge of anger in her voice. She really did want to know what made him reject her at the same time her friends abandoned her. It was just that she didn't care if knowing would allow her to salvage their relationship. As she thought more and more about Mamoru, she realized that she would gladly refuse any form of relationship with him, romantic or otherwise. Ikuko also felt that small amount of anger in her daughter as the conversation about the man continued, so she decided to change the topic.

"What about your friend Ami? How does she feel about you?" Ikuko asked softly, her eyes cautiously gauging Usagi's expressions.

"She hates me," Usagi said softly, her tone one of absolute dejection, the anger from before long gone. She looked down at the floor with dim, pitiful eyes for a moment before adding in the same sad tone, "They all hate me."

"Are you sure they do?" Ikuko asked incredulously. The last thing she wanted to contemplate was the complete social abandonment of her daughter. It seemed so farfetched that such an open, jovial, and carefree girl could be so easily discarded by the people she loved and trusted the most.

Usagi sluggishly nodded. "They all said as much," she whispered miserably but in an outright deliberate manner. "They said I was fat, stupid, irresponsible, useless… Rei was especially harsh. She said that I should just go away and never bother them again."

She could not cry even if she wanted to at that moment as she was out of tears, but it didn't matter. She was doing what she wanted to do and knew she needed to do. The more she spoke, the more she revealed just how much abuse she received from her friends, the more cathartic it felt and the more she felt hopeful instead of depressed. Then she remembered Luna's words and how strongly she believed in her. _"I can't give up,"_ she told herself. _"As long as I have my mom and dad, and even my annoying-as-hell brother, and as long as I have Luna, I can't give up. They believe in me. I have to believe in myself."_ She closed her eyes and slowly released a huge sigh.

"Usagi…" Ikuko whispered in sadness.

"Don't worry, mom," Usagi said. Her voice was beginning to lose its sullen overtones and become more optimistic. Even her eyes were slowly starting to revive their usual sparkle. "I truly believe that I will get them back. They will become my friends again. Everything I'm doing is to make sure that happens."

"That's why you've changed so much, so quickly? That's why you started acting more… more like the responsible young woman I always knew you were?" Ikuko asked.

"Yep," Usagi said happily, her lips curling into a light smile. Her eyes started to truly shine for the first time in a week. Indeed, her mother had faith in her and truly _believed_ in her—more than her own senshi had ever believed in her, even.

A light buzzing sound could be heard emanating from the shoulder bag that was lying on the ground next to the bed. It was her cell phone vibrating, signaling that someone was trying to contact her. Usagi reached into the bag and removed the phone. The outer screen was illuminated light blue and showed an animated, manga-like picture of a girl with short blue hair. Ami was calling her. The thought of Ami and how much her former friend hated her extinguished the sparkle in her eyes as quickly as her budding hope had ignited it.

"What is it, dear?" Ikuko asked cautiously, concerned in the sudden swelling of misery in her daughter once again.

"It's Ami. She's calling me," Usagi said in complete dejection.

The phone vibrated once more in her hands then fell silent. Usagi sighed and hoped that the phone would not ring again. She definitely didn't want to talk to Ami so soon after their last meeting. Her enthusiasm for recovering the damaged friendships was tempered by the reality of the oppressive pain she would have to bear in order to actually do so. She needed time and space to prepare herself. And why would Ami have called so soon? To rub the fact that she has her ex-boyfriend in her face once more? Alas, her hopes would be dashed as mere seconds later the phone started to vibrate once again and Ami's face once more graced the outer screen. Usagi just stared at the phone as it vibrated in her hands.

"Don't be afraid, honey. Just believe, as you said," Ikuko said calmly as she sat at the side of Usagi's bed. Her light smile and calm, tender eyes reaffirmed the confidence she had in her daughter.

Usagi slowly flipped open the phone just before it stopped vibrating for the last time. _"Maybe she doesn't hate me. Maybe I can get her back. I just have to believe,"_ she thought, taking several deep breaths as she unhurriedly moved the phone to the side of her face.

"Hello?" The sadness in her voice was obvious.

"U-Usagi… chan," Ami said in a distressed voice. It was clear that she had been crying almost as heavily as Usagi had cried. "I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry for _everything_!"

"Ami-chan…" Usagi replied softly. She was taken aback by Ami's sorrowful tone. _"Has she been crying the entire time? Why?"_ she pondered.

"Usagi, I know… I know I've been quite… mean… to you in the past few days. I… I know you think I… that you think I hate you," Ami said softly in a rough cadence that was interrupted by sobs.

"Do you?" Usagi asked in a somber whisper full of nervous anticipation.

Ami paused for several moments before responding in a voice that was very soft, bordering on inaudible, yet full of sincerity. "I… don't. I absolutely don't hate you, Usagi-chan."

"Then why… why did you say all those hateful things to me?" Confusion was etched across the blonde's face.

"That's the most difficult thing for me. I… I don't know if you'll believe me if I said it, but… I didn't believe that you… were you," Ami said hesitantly.

"I don't understand," Usagi said with even more puzzlement in her voice and her eyes widening somewhat.

"I don't… fully understand it myself. It was just a feeling… a feeling that suddenly came to me. It seemed so strange and unfathomable. But, I slowly began to believe in it the more I looked at you. I-I feel so… sick… sick and angry at myself… just thinking about it now." Ami was speaking in such a wavering voice that it was a miracle she didn't just break down and start weeping right then and there.

"Ami," Usagi began to ask softly but with the same strange melancholy-sounding calm she displayed when she talked with Luna the previous day, "is that what you meant when you said I brought it on myself?"

"Yes."

Usagi paused. She wanted to probe Ami more about just what it was she felt, and to ask her more directly if she remembered her promise as a senshi. However she couldn't so long as her mom was still in the room. She might have wanted to eventually reveal her true identity to her mother, but she didn't want to divulge the other girls' secrets as well. Ami also wanted to elaborate more on her thoughts and motivations but was more compelled to do so in person.

"Usagi, there's just so much I want to tell you, but I feel so much better telling you in person," Ami said solemnly.

"I understand. I feel the same way," Usagi replied calmly. "How about we meet tomorrow, maybe sometime before we start to work on our project."

"That's fine," Ami said in a low voice. There was a pause for several moments during which all Usagi could hear were muffled sobs and sniffles. It was evident Ami was struggling to compose herself. Soon her voice could be heard through the phone's speaker once again. "Usagi, I hope you ever find it in your heart to forgive me for all the pain I put you through," she whispered almost inaudibly.

"I hope so too," Usagi replied in that calm voice with the smallest trace of enthusiasm present. She heard one more sob and then a click in the earpiece that signified Ami disconnected the call. Usagi closed the phone and put it back in her shoulder bag.

"Well?" Ikuko asked expectedly.

Usagi looked up at her mom with the largest smile she had made in weeks. Her sapphire blue eyes sparkled at their brightest. "I was wrong. Ami doesn't hate me. She doesn't hate me," she said in a calm voice that seemingly conflicted with her external expressions of joy.

"I knew she didn't. She couldn't hate you, no matter what happens between you two," Ikuko said gently in a soothing tone. "I don't believe any of them could."

"Now I just need to work on the others," the pigtailed blonde said in a slightly playful tone.

"I fully believe they'll come around just like Ami has," Ikuko said with confidence. She walked to Usagi and wrapped her arms around her in a warm hug. "I'm just so happy to see you not so miserable anymore."

Usagi pulled herself closer to her mother and gazed upward into a pair of comforting eyes. Light tears started to form in her eyes once again, but this time they were tears of happiness, not pain.

"Thank you so much, mama. For everything. I love you so much!" Usagi said euphorically, the tears falling slowly from her clenched eyes and streaking down her rosy cheeks. She hugged her mother so tightly that the woman winced ever so slightly.

"I love you too, dear. I love you too." Ikuko replied softly with a light chuckle. "Now, I have to go make you lunch for tomorrow. I'll make a really special one for you," she said with a mischievous grin as she slowly released her hold of Usagi.

"I'd like that very much," Usagi said with a wide, bright smile. She moved a hand to her face to whisk away a few tears from her cheeks.

Ikuko nodded and gave Usagi one last tender smile before turning to walk back downstairs and finish preparing the boxed lunches her daughter and son would take to school the next day. As she passed through the doorway she suddenly came to a halt as though she felt something strange, another presence. It wasn't an ominous presence by any means, and she felt a warm sensation course through her body. Her curious eyes pointed at first at the ceiling and then toward Usagi's bed. They spotted a nervously silent Luna lying motionless on her side, appearing to be a stuffed toy that was accidentally knocked over. Her eyes widened slightly as she recognized the black cat from before, as the focus of the beautiful sketch Usagi drew almost a week ago. "That's strange," was the phrase that escaped her lips as she gazed at Luna for a split second longer before shrugging her shoulders and calmly walking out of Usagi's bedroom.


	13. Dame Mercury

**Chapter 13: Dame Mercury**

That Wednesday already was quite peculiar, despite the fact it barely had even begun. It had started off well enough, with Usagi arriving at school early as she had tended to do since that horrendous night last week. She sat at her usual desk in the middle of the classroom and watched as more and more students streamed into the room and collected into small, chatty groups while waiting for Haruna to arrive. Normally Usagi would also have been involved in the early-morning gossip, but her mind was preoccupied. She found herself in deep contemplation, blankly staring off into space. Something was missing. No. Actually, some_body_ was missing. She looked over her left shoulder toward one of the windows that lined the wall, and more specifically at one of the desks next to that window. For the first time that school year, or even as far back as she could remember, the desk's occupant was absent. She closed her eyes and expelled a loud, deep sigh. It was 7:55 on a bright, sunny morning, five minutes before the start of homeroom class—Haruna's homeroom class—and, astonishingly, Ami Mizuno was not there.

Five minutes later Haruna walked through the door and toward the front desk with her attendance notebook in hand. The other students that milled about the classroom and were conversing in their small groups immediately dispersed and took to their seats as soon as they saw the teacher standing at the head of the room. Usagi briefly turned to look at the Ami's empty desk. She thought about the possibility of Ami being counted late, or even absent, for the first time in her life. And if Ami were indeed late, in Haruna's homeroom class, that would have meant, quite possibly, detention for Ami. She shuddered at the notion of a girl like Ami being forced to spend five minutes, let alone a full hour, in detention.

"_Hmmm… if Ami does get detention, maybe I should do something to get detention as well, so she wouldn't be so alone,"_ Usagi pondered as she sneaked another glance at Ami's empty desk. _"On the other hand, she deserves at least an hour of detention for the misery she put me through."_ Her eyes narrowed ever so slightly as that devious idea passed through her mind. However, that idea was soon quashed and she felt disgusted at herself for even thinking it. _"No… I'm sure she already feels as horrible as I have felt this past week. I don't want to be as bad as _them_ and make her feel even worse."_

As Usagi mulled over the probabilities of Ami receiving detention and whether she would help the water senshi—her compassionate nature dominating as usual—the classroom door slid open with a ferocious thud. At the threshold stood a girl panting heavily, her school uniform somewhat disheveled, and her blue hair falling in front of her eyes.

"Mizuno-san, you made it _just_ in time," Haruna said, looking toward the harried Ami. "As it is your first time… ever, I'll be lenient on you. Now please hurry to your seat so we can begin."

"_Well, I guess I don't have to worry about going to detention for Ami's sake,"_ Usagi thought with a slight smile spreading across her lips.

Ami walked to her desk slowly, her feet shuffling along the ground and her eyes pointed at the ground. Usagi immediately could tell there was more to Ami's demeanor than being tired from rushing to class. She looked back toward Ami as she slumped into her seat with her head hung down. Ami's hair completely obscured her face, making it hard to see the tears that slowly fell from her eyes and splattered against the lacquered oak desk. It didn't matter though. Usagi knew she was right after all: Ami did feel absolutely miserable. She sighed as she thought about the pain and conflicting emotions that Ami must have been experiencing over the past day.

After a few minutes of taking attendance, stating announcements, and performing some other tedious administrative duties, Haruna allowed students to leave their desks. A few minutes remained before the end of homeroom period, and many students took the opportunity to talk with friends and classmates. Usagi used the time to slowly walk to Ami's desk.

"Ami-chan…?" Usagi whispered as she bent her knees to lower herself to Ami's level.

Ami slowly turned her head toward Usagi. She pushed the matted blue strands of hair from her face revealing her reddened eyes and tear-streaked cheeks. The girl was a complete mess.

"I think back to everything we said—that I said and did to you—and I imagine you were just as much of a mess as I am right now," she somehow choked out in a hoarse whisper.

Usagi slowly nodded. "It's true. There were times where I was completely miserable, last night being one of them," she replied softly, her pitch dropping ever so slightly with the last phrase. It came out a bit more harshly than she intended, but that was understandable given her painful experiences at the hands of the girl she now was attempting to console. As such, she looked upon Ami with eyes that were an ocean of calm.

Ami stared directly into those serene blue eyes for several moments, as though she was trying to search Usagi's soul for some insight into how the blonde felt about her. Her eyes seemed peaceful, but her words sounded quite bitter. Deservedly bitter. She pondered how she would feel if she were in Usagi's place, if Usagi had abandoned her and abused her the same way she abandoned and abused Usagi. She didn't know if she would, or could, forgive such a person so quickly, or at all. As she reflected further she realized she couldn't possibly deserve such forgiveness for her actions. However, it wasn't Usagi's forgiveness she was referencing. She would welcome Usagi's compassion and leniency if she decided to give it and fully understand if she denied it. No, she was referring to herself. Her stomach turned into an even tighter knot than it already was. She was utterly disgusted at herself. She didn't deserve Usagi's kindness, not at all. She pointed her eyes down at her desk as more tears started to fall. If there was anything she was going to do, however, it was to let Usagi know _why_ she mistreated her the way she did.

"I'm so sorry, Usagi. I'm sorry for all the pain I put you through," Ami whispered between sobs.

"Ami-chan, you already apologized before and I accepted it then as I do now," Usagi said softly while gently grasping one of Ami's hands with both of hers.

Ami shook her head and rather stiffly pulled her hand away from Usagi. "I… I feel… I feel like I don't deserve your forgiveness," she said hesitantly while continuing to stare at the tear-soaked surface of her desk.

"Ami-chan, you know that's not true. I want to forgive you, absolutely. And I want you to accept my forgiveness." Usagi tenderly placed a hand on Ami's right shoulder, causing the blue-haired girl to flinch. However Ami didn't attempt to move away from Usagi this time. "I want us to be friends again, desperately. I know it'll take time, and I know that there's so much that we'll have to talk about and do to regain each other's trust, but I believe it'll happen."

Ami's body started to tremble, though her motions were imperceptible to everyone except Usagi. _"Friends. She wants us to be friends again. But how can she trust me now? Especially that I took _him_ away from her?"_

"Why? Why do you want to be friends with me?" Ami mumbled with such desolation in her voice it almost passed for no emotion at all. "How do you know I'm not just going to hurt you again?"

"Ami-chan! What are you saying?" Usagi asked incredulously, stepping backwards in shock of Ami's unstated suggestion. She was astounded at the depth of despair within which the girl allowed herself to wallow. But to let it swallow her so completely that she wouldn't allow herself to repair their friendship was untenable. She was not about to let that happen, not when she was so close. She leaned in closer and lifted Ami's head with one hand, the other hand still on her shoulder, so she could peer directly into her teary eyes. The two girls were so close that their noses almost touched.

"Of course I want to be friends with you again," Usagi whispered serenely, her dazzling blue eyes fixated on Ami's bleary, reddened eyes. "Because you're more valuable to me than you're giving yourself credit for. You're my mind, and in many ways my conscience. Without you I'm truly incomplete. And even though you hurt me so badly, I don't believe we can't make things right again."

Ami gasped when she heard and felt just how beloved and truly important Usagi considered her and their friendship. She truly was at a loss of words. Not that there wasn't anything she _wanted_ to say, but she couldn't steady herself to say them in a congruent and comprehensible manner. Anything she would attempt to say would come out as pure mush. However, it was apparent that Usagi's words were having the intended effect, as Ami's tears slowly subsided. Her heart was opening up to the concept of friendship between them once again. It was slow and arduous, but indeed it was opening.

"I guess it's off to class for us," Usagi said softly as she slowly released her already light grip of Ami's shoulder. Indeed, the bell had rung and the other students already were rushing to their respective classes. Ami nodded in response but did not move from her seat. Usagi slowly walked over to her desk and grabbed the bag, then slowly moved toward the classroom door, all the while glancing back at a stationary Ami. She appeared frozen, her eyes staring straight ahead at some imaginary point in space. But they were not completely dead eyes. There was some life to them, a nascent glimmer forming. The rest of her was still utterly pale and miserable looking, yet there was hope.

"_I think she's okay with _us_,"_ she thought as she took one last glimpse at Ami. _"She just needs to learn to be okay with _herself_ now."_ She sighed and walked through the door.

The rest of Usagi's morning was relatively uneventful. Japanese class was unusually boring and she started to fall asleep a few times but somehow she managed to not collapse in a slumbering heap on her desk. Math was painful, as usual, but at least she was more awake—Mr. Watanabe made sure of that. Though, after that class, she never wanted to look at another triangle again if she could help it. The last class before lunch was English, and it was the next opportunity for Usagi to see Ami that day.

Usagi could not resist her curiosity to know what Ami was doing and how she was feeling. Every time she looked back she saw that Ami was completely distracted, her eyes fixed on some object on the other side of the window. She hoped Haruna did not decide to ask a question of Ami as she probably wouldn't recognize her own name the way she appeared to be so detached from reality. At the same time, Usagi had a very good sense of what Ami was experiencing, the internal conflict through which she was suffering. She was very, _very_ familiar with those painful emotions. As she studied Ami she could recognize a faint shimmer in her eyes that would then disappear with a light sigh, and then reappear. It was as if she were having an intense internal debate with neither side—depression and self-loathing versus elation and rejuvenation—having any particular advantage. But then, near the end of class, a new look appeared in Ami's eyes that dominated both previous expressions. It was one of steely determination. Usagi didn't exactly know what that meant but she was hopeful that it was something good.

The bell rang to signify the end of class and the beginning of the lunch hour. Usagi stood from her desk and was about to pick up her bag when she heard her name being called.

"Usagi-chan, do you mind if I eat lunch with you?" Ami asked softly.

"Of course you can, Ami-chan. You don't even have to ask me like that," Usagi replied in a playfully annoyed tone while slinging her bag across her shoulder. She suddenly turned around to face Ami. "However, won't the other girls question your absence?"

Indeed she was slightly concerned at how strange that would suddenly look and far more concerned for any retribution of the other girls against Ami. She didn't want Ami to be hurt any worse just because she defied them and associated with her. She reminded herself she was still _persona non grata_, and despite her strong desire to renew her friendships with the remaining girls, in all respects they still passionately hated her.

"I told them between classes that I was very busy, that I had a project to do and I needed to find someplace quiet to work," Ami uttered in a voice only slightly louder than a whisper.

"Ah, I see," Usagi said quietly. _"Ami lied to them so she could be with me,"_ she thought. Well, it wasn't a complete lie as Ami did have a project to do. It was just due that Friday, and the bulk of the work was mostly complete, so she really didn't require that much urgency. However, it was the easiest lie she could provide given her outright lack of skill at lying convincingly. Yet none of the details were important. The plain fact was that she lied, and she lied precisely so she could be with the girl she realized she truly missed for so long. Usagi allowed her lips to pull themselves into a light smile that progressively grew wider and brighter.

"Well, then, follow me!" Usagi said with an elation that shocked Ami as well as herself.

The pair left the classroom and walked down the main hall in the same direction as most of the students heading to lunch. However, instead of following them out the front door to the courtyard they turned and walked up a set of stairs. Usagi noticed as they ascended that Ami recognized precisely where they were headed, and could almost make the walk with her eyes closed. She had traveled that route many times herself. They continued marching up the stairs until they reached a lone metal door that marked the end of the staircase and the beginning of the rooftop.

"Is this where you've been eating lunch, Usagi?" Ami asked with a hint of sadness in her voice. She was unfortunately familiar with eating lunch, alone, on the rooftop. The idea that she had driven the pigtailed blonde to do the same thing was threatening to destroy the fragile mental peace she had just created.

"Occasionally. Other times I'd eat lunch with some other friends, but it's just not the same…" Usagi replied, a trace of melancholy making itself evident. She shook herself of that painful emotion and pointed toward the open space of the rooftop. "Shall we?" she asked with a light, yet very warm smile.

They walked to a corner of the roof that overlooked the athletic fields, where they saw some students running around the track and others playing an impromptu game on the soccer pitch. None of the students on the ground seemed to notice that anyone was on the roof, which made it an excellent place for them to talk in private.

"So, Ami-chan," Usagi began as she sat down on the concrete surface and took a boxed lunch out of her bag, her voice gathering a far more serious tone, "do you remember when we talked on the phone last night, and you said that you didn't believe that I was me?"

"Yes," Ami whispered in reply as she sat next to Usagi.

"By that, did you mean that you did not believe I was Princess Serenity?" Usagi stared intently at Ami with wide, yet focused, eyes.

Ami, on the other hand, pointed her eyes down at her feet. "Yes," she replied solemnly. The very act of recalling the ancient memory that lead to her betrayal of Usagi—her betrayal of the very princess she swore to protect—was very painful to her. From somewhere unknown she found the strength to continue. Her own anguish paled in comparison to Usagi's, she reasoned, and as such Usagi deserved to know why she was abandoned so harshly. She took a very deep breath and, without looking up, proceeded to divulge her recollections as calmly as she could manage.

"It was a feeling, a memory really, that we all suddenly received, a few months ago now. We remembered our true purpose as senshi, to protect the princess of the moon. But after receiving those memories, whenever we saw you we didn't see the _princess_, only another sailor senshi."

"Sailor Moon…" Usagi said flatly.

"Right," Ami replied in her calm, almost deadened voice. "Sailor Moon did not exist in any state in the memories that came to us, only the princess and the four of us sworn to protect her."

Ami inhaled a deep breath and slowly exhaled it as she pondered her next words. She wanted to be as clear as she possibly could to make sure Usagi completely understood her motivations—as well as the motivations of the other girls—at the time. It was the only way she truly could be fair to Usagi. In her mind, however, she thought her next words to be woefully inadequate and slightly ridiculous—actually, completely illogical. Yet, she soldiered on.

"I know we saw you as Princess Serenity before. I mean, I think that's what we saw. We saw you cradling Mamoru's—Tuxedo Kamen's—wounded body after Zoicite's attack. And then there was the princess cradling that very same body. Clearly that had to be you, and before we received those memories we truly believed that was you. But our new memories made us doubt that. Our memories of who the princess had to be were so strong, it led us to reason that she must still be out there, somewhere, and we needed to start searching for her again."

Ami paused and took another deep breath. She expected Usagi to start asking questions, such as "didn't you clearly see I was the princess?" or "why would doubt me based on some strange old memory?" She was prepared to be yelled at for coming up with something so outlandish that, she feared, Usagi couldn't possibly believe it. Instead, she was met with absolute silence, an understanding silence punctuated by a small murmur from Usagi that seemed to mean "go on". And so, surprised at Usagi's silence and at the same time thankful for it, she continued speaking in her strangely calm voice, her lifeless eyes still focused on one spot on the ground.

"We figured that you were still somewhat helpful to us because we had to fight Queen Beryl and her youmas. You seemed to be the only one who could destroy the most powerful ones. We decided to use that to our advantage. We—I figured that Beryl would want to find the princess just as much as we needed to find her. I reasoned Beryl's persistence in gathering energy for Queen Metalia and trying to kill us somehow would allow us to find the princess. Maybe the princess, awakened by all the activity and the attacks on her senshi, would eventually appear during one of the many youma attacks so that she could end all of the fighting. Or, maybe Beryl would get lucky and find the princess, and in the process lead us straight to her. In any case, we determined your role in this was to keep the youmas at bay for us, maybe even distract them with fighting while we went on our search. At least that was our plan. But we decided it was better not to tell you about our other mission, our main mission."

"Why?" Usagi asked indignantly, her voice rising almost to a shout. "Why wouldn't you just _tell_ me? Tell me that you doubted I was the princess. Did you not trust me as a fellow senshi? Did you not trust me, even then, as a _friend_?" She glared at Ami with narrowed eyes. That admission had hurt her more deeply than she could imagine. Though she had no intentions of harboring her anger for much longer, she dearly wanted to let Ami know just how furious she was at her for not trusting her.

Ami winced when she heard the emphasis of Usagi's last word. She could sense the blonde's incensed glare without even looking up. There came the angry questions she had expected earlier. Her heart sank deep into a stomach that was already twisting into knots as she absorbed Usagi's furious outburst. Was her explanation undoing all their progress in reestablishing their friendship? She was starting to worry. Yet, at the same time, a part of her was confused. Usagi only was irritated by the fact that they didn't tell her up front that they didn't consider her to be the princess and that they were resuming the search. She wasn't at all angry at being marginalized or manipulated by her fellow senshi, or if she was she clearly placed a higher priority on the trust issue. Despite Usagi's heartache and fury and her own anxiety and confusion, Ami continued her explanation undaunted. She was determined to get through it no matter what, for both of their sakes. That quaint, deadened voice of hers sounded once again.

"It wasn't that I didn't trust you… at least, not at that time. We just thought it was a mission that belonged only to senshi who pledged to protect our princess. Yes, you are a senshi, and you helped us for the most part. I grant that you helped to awaken us and bring us all together. We followed you in fighting against Queen Beryl now. But you never took that pledge. And, honestly, as we remembered our true mission, we were feeling that you were becoming more and more of a liability to us."

Usagi expelled a huge sigh. Despite her outburst, her anger was only fleeting and she had already given into concentrating on Ami's explanation. In fact, inwardly she was anxious that she had gone overboard with the eruption and had damaged her prospects of fully healing the rift between the two. In any case, she immediately realized what she meant when Ami said she was a "liability". She might as well have said that she was a slow, lazy, stupid, irresponsible klutz of a person, and a horrible fighter and leader to boot. But she didn't have to, because someone else had said so already.

"Much like what Rei said…" she whispered sadly. The memories of that night were still fresh in her mind.

Ami slowly nodded once. "Especially after that one youma battle where Rei almost died when you pushed her right into its laser beam. She was incapacitated for an entire month. I think ever since then Rei truly started to hate you."

Usagi's face blanched at the recollection. "It was an accident. I tripped and ran into her. I didn't deliberately push her. I told her that. I tried to apologize but she wouldn't listen to me," she said wistfully.

"I know now it was an accident. But, then, we weren't so sure what to think or believe," Ami whispered while continuing to stare down at her feet. "That incident and several others all added up in our minds. I think, little-by-little, all of us were starting to lose our patience with you. Moreover, we were becoming suspicious of you. We were feeling immense frustration because we could not find that who we considered to be the true princess."

Ami paused and her body started to tremble ever so slightly. She really didn't want to reveal this last part—the part that underscored the true extent of their betrayal. Yet she felt she had no choice but to give her complete justification to Usagi. If that destroyed any chance of their being friends again, so be it, so long as Usagi could understand her mindset at the time. This time, Ami could not maintain her calm voice, and her anxiety, sadness, confusion, and embarrassment permeated her words.

"Suddenly, I had this idea," she began slowly in a voice barely above a whisper. "I recalled that you had appeared as Princess Serenity once before. You had her dress, that legendary white gown, but more importantly, you had her Silver Crystal. But you clearly didn't have her grace or her skill. If you weren't the princess—and we all believed that you weren't and that you couldn't have been—then you had to have done something to the princess and took those things from her." She slowly shook her head as tears welled in her eyes, tears from the pain she suffered as she divulged her reasoning. "That is what I meant when I told you that all the misery I gave you—that we all gave you—you brought upon yourself. That also was what caused us to snap, to want to separate ourselves from you as quickly as possible so we could figure out what to do with you. And… and what we decided was we absolutely needed to get the Silver Crystal from you as soon as possible, and—" she choked back a sob— "in any way possible. Even if that ultimately meant… if that… that…"

Ami lost the will and requisite composure to complete the sentence. But it didn't matter to Usagi as she knew in her heart what Ami was going to say. She looked down at the ground and sighed heavily once again.

"So it _is_ what I thought after all," she said calmly.

"What do you mean?" Ami replied in shock, finally turning her eyes toward Usagi. That was not a response she was anticipating. It implied that the girl knew all along what they had planned to do to her.

"I had a nightmare that you guys were attacking me, calling me a fraud the entire time and saying I didn't deserve to have the Silver Crystal," Usagi whispered. Ami's eyes widened when she heard that. "I tried to plead with you all to stop, but you kept attacking. I evaded as best as I could as I wouldn't dare attack you guys. But, eventually there was nothing more I could do and you caught me and—" she started to shiver as she thought about the finale of the scene she described— "and you all killed me."

Ami looked down at her feet once again as tears that had welled in her eyes started to fall with tremendous intensity. "I wouldn't think about doing that to you, Usagi-chan. Certainly not now," she whispered with utmost sincerity.

Her mind was racing like never before. She had no idea until just then that Usagi knew all along of the terrifying plan they had concocted to retrieve the Silver Crystal. Yet, nobody told her about it. Nobody had to. She sensed it entirely within the confines of her dreams. It was a power that far surpassed Rei's psychic ability as a shrine maiden and as Sailor Mars. It was a unique and special power that was extremely rare on Earth and rare even among senshi. Yet, Usagi had that power. Usagi was far more extraordinary than she could conceive, and it made absolutely no sense to her how that could possibly be, unless…

Usagi stopped shaking as she slowly calmed herself by closing her eyes and taking several deep breaths. She then suddenly stood up, startling Ami in the process, and walked out a few paces from the blue-haired girl. There she stood for a moment with her back to Ami.

"Why wouldn't you want to kill me?" she asked firmly in an utterly somber tone.

"_What?_" Ami exclaimed in absolute horror. She stood straight up, her arms stiff at her sides. "Because, despite everything that's happened between us as senshi, when I put all of that aside and truly think about it, I consider you a friend," she said in a strong voice, with an honesty and enthusiasm that belied her wretched appearance. She spoke from her heart, not her mind. "The most valuable friend I ever had actually. A friend that I couldn't believe I almost stupidly gave up. A friend I truly want back."

A bright smile appeared on Usagi's face when she heard what Ami said. She had succeeded in securing Ami's friendship once again. However, she maintained the serious façade when she spoke again.

"That's not what I meant. I _am_ talking about us as senshi. I'm talking about you as a senshi who promised to protect the princess and me as some fraud who _somehow_ has the princess's most prized possession."

"After seeing what you did yesterday I don't know if you're a fraud."

Usagi turned around to face Ami with dazzling eyes and a mischievous grin. "Then do you believe I'm Princess Serenity?" she asked in a playful voice.

"I… I don't know that either," Ami said softly and more hesitantly while looking down at the rooftop. She knew Usagi was special, more special than just a senshi, and far more valuable and worthy than any of them had credited her. However, her logical mind just couldn't allow herself to accept Usagi as the princess, given her memories, without hard evidence. Fortunately she wouldn't have to wait long for that evidence.

Usagi slowly stepped toward Ami until she was right in front of her and gently grasped both of Ami's hands with her own.

"Would you like me to show you?" she asked in an innocent whisper.

"What? _How?_" Ami asked in both amazement and confusion.

Usagi released Ami's hands and took a step back. She then closed her eyes and, with her hands clasped in front of her as in prayer, slipped into her deepest concentration ever. She was attempting to do something she had never done before: to directly transform by herself into Princess Serenity _without_ first becoming Sailor Moon. She had become the princess before, once in the aforementioned tense fight with Zoisite, the other during training against Malanche, but those instances occurred when her life was in extraordinary danger. Also, she had already transformed into Sailor Moon beforehand each time. The other occasion she became the princess was when she met with her mother and her power as Queen Serenity allowed the transformation. None of that mattered anymore. Right then, it was her time to do it, alone, and with no other impetus. Her figure began to glow bright pink as she prayed to the Silver Crystal, her chants inaudible to Ami though she stood only a few feet away. After about a minute of intense meditation a sphere of pure white energy completely enveloped her, causing Ami to stumble backwards, her arms covering her eyes to prevent the forceful light from blinding her. Suddenly, the sphere silently exploded with a massive blast of wind, and standing before Ami was Usagi, dressed not in the white blouse and navy blue skirt of her school uniform but in the flowing, opalescent gold-trimmed white gown of Princess Serenity.

"U-U-Us- a- gi…" Ami stuttered. Her eyes were as wide as they possibly could get as she stared in astonishment at the magnificently beautiful and stately young woman that had replaced the plain schoolgirl that stood there just moments prior.

"Do you believe me now?" Usagi said in a melodious whisper. A warm smile spread across her lips.

Almost unconsciously, Ami approached Usagi and knelt before her on one knee, her head bowed in deference to the princess she longed to find and protect. "Absolutely," she whispered with utmost sincerity. All doubt in her mind about whether that pigtailed blonde was Princess Serenity was immediately eliminated.

Usagi walked over to the kneeling Ami and gently placed a hand on her shoulder. Immediately upon contact, Ami emitted a pale blue light and involuntarily transformed into Sailor Mercury without using her transformation pen or saying her typical incantation.

"Woah… That was cool!" Usagi said as she was momentarily stunned by what she just did. It truly was something marvelous and unexpected. It was a power very similar to her mother's. She turned to Ami, who was still bent before her. "Anyway, why are you kneeling like that?" she asked innocently.

"Princess Serenity, I sincerely apologize to you for my previous disloyalty and betrayal. I am here to serve you in any way you request and to protect you to the best of my abilities," Ami said softly yet resolutely, her head still bowed and her manner one of complete subservience to Usagi.

"Ami-chan, I may be the princess, but I'm also still Usagi. You don't have to kneel to me, ever," she said warmly, before her tone shifted to one of false annoyance. "Also, you've gotta stop apologizing. I already forgave you a long time ago. It's getting old."

Ami looked up at Usagi and gave her the widest, brightest smile she had given anyone in what she felt to be ages. For the first time in weeks, she was truly happy. Though Usagi would experience the most pain, none of the girls were cheerful ever since they received that ancient memory. How could they be? The memory meant all of their hard work and pent-up stress, never mind their constant battles, all done with the singular purpose of locating the princess, was done in vain. Yet, they were wrong. They had the princess all along. A rejuvenated, ebullient Ami slowly lifted herself from the ground to stand with her princess. However, she stopped when she felt Usagi's hands once more upon her shoulders.

"Ah, actually, on second thought, um… there's always something I wanted to do, uh, with you here kneeling and all," Usagi said somewhat nervously but playfully at the same time. Her Moon Stick suddenly appeared in front of her and she grabbed it with both hands in the same way a person would hold a sword. She held the Moon Stick out from her body and over Ami's right shoulder. Ami looked up at her with a perplexed look on her face.

"Really, Usagi?" she asked incredulously. Having read many works of English literature set in medieval times, she had a keen sense of what Usagi was attempting to do. She also had an idea of how utterly silly the entire scene would look. But she couldn't bring herself to refuse her princess, not with something so innocent and so… like Usagi. This was the Usagi that neither girl had seen in so long, and she didn't want her to go away anytime soon.

"Oh, come on Ami, work with me here," Usagi said lightheartedly while winking at the water senshi with resplendent eyes.

"Alright…"

Ami reluctantly kneeled on two knees and bowed her head. Soon she felt the Moon Stick lightly tap her right shoulder followed a few seconds later by a gentle tap on her left shoulder.

"For your dutiful service to the Silver Millennium, and in recognition of your, um, _renewed_ loyalty to its princess and ruler, I hereby proclaim you Sir Mercury!" Usagi said cheerfully.

"Wouldn't that be _dame_, not _sir_, since I am a girl after all," Ami said, slightly annoyed at the obvious mistake.

"Ah, okay…" Usagi shifted her eyes in embarrassment and coughed nervously. "I hereby proclaim you Dame Mercury!"

"Or you could use _lady_, depending on the type of order you were…"

"_I said_ _Dame Mercury!_" exclaimed Usagi, forcefully yet jokingly, in a successful attempt to stop Ami from giving a full-fledged lecture on the types of honorific orders and terms associated with them.

Ami lifted herself to her feet and looked at Usagi who gave her a radiant smile. She returned an equally large smile.

"So, what happens to me now that I've been knighted?" Ami asked.

Usagi darted her wide, gleaming eyes away from Ami and pointed them up into the sky. "Nothing I know of, really. It just seemed like the thing to do at the time," she said lightheartedly. She paused for a moment and appeared to be deep in thought. "Although, come to think of it, since I _am_ the princess after all it _could_ somehow be official." She turned and winked at Ami.

Ami could hardly contain herself after that and started to giggle, her hand held to her mouth in a failing attempt to muffle the laughter. The sight of Ami then caused Usagi to begin laughing much louder than Ami, but apparently not loud enough to attract attention from the students below. The two girls continued to laugh for almost a full minute, and during that minute it was clear that the two were well on their way to becoming very close friends once again.


	14. A Meeting with the One Once Loved

**Chapter 14: A Meeting with the One Once Loved**

Usagi stared at the chalkboard with a blank look in what should have been very lively and resplendent eyes. She had just successfully revived one of her cherished friendships. Ami no longer hated her. And, she understood what drove the girls to abandon her the way they did. So it was just a matter of "one down, three to go", right? Yet, as ecstatic as she was just a few moments ago on the school's rooftop, she just could not shake the nagging concerns that suddenly crossed her mind, concerns that had serious implications for her life and the future of the entire solar system if not properly dealt with. Concerns that were far more important than a dismally boring Japanese history lecture.

She was just fully realizing the gravity of Ami's explanation. The story itself was pretty easy for her to understand. At first they, her fellow senshi, thought she was the princess, but then they had some ancient memory jump into their heads that convinced them otherwise. Her horrible fighting skills and clumsiness only served to further reinforce their doubts about her. Those parts were easy for her to digest. What tormented her was the plan that Ami revealed at the end. The plan that her nightmare had accurately predicted and the plan she hoped would never come to fruition. Were they really plotting to kill her? Even if it were the last of last resorts, such a scheme would go against everything in which she believed as well as everything they believed. She delved as deeply as possible into what memories she could recall of her life as Princess Serenity. Even then, several thousand years ago, she could not remember Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, or Venus ever being comfortable with killing anyone for any reason, let alone being willing to kill. _"There always is a better way"_ was their mantra, passed to the senshi and continuously reinforced by Queen Serenity and herself. It was a message they easily understood and one that guided their lives and the way they fought. That wasn't to say some of the senshi always agreed with the principle—that was always a point of contention between the inner guardian senshi and the outer senshi. Nor was it always the case that Serenity's guardian senshi could abide by that teaching. Nevertheless, it was something they strived to do, so to learn of the plan her senshi had developed not only confused her, it shattered her heart.

Now, she wasn't exactly afraid of Ami trying to kill her, or lead her to her death at the hands of the other girls. She knew the girl she had just called her mind and her conscience had fully discarded those disparaging thoughts and had come to fully believe in her. Besides, Ami was a terrible liar. If she were trying to lure Usagi into a trap she would have given away the whole plan ages ago. What concerned the blonde was how she was going to demonstrate to the remaining three girls that she indeed was the princess.

"_I could just show them that I'm truly the princess they're looking for, just like what I did with Ami,"_ she thought. Her eyes brilliantly shined for a fleeting second before a terrible reality dawned on her, causing them to glaze over once again. _"But how am I going to get in contact with them? How am I going to get them to listen to me and let me show them what I need to show them?"_

She folded her arms across her desk and rested her head on them. This was going to require a bit more concentration.

"_Obviously, I can't just go up to them one-by-one. They'll never even give me the time of day. They don't trust me and… I can't trust them quite yet."_ A slight depression clouded Usagi's mind. _"If only all the girls were as sweet and honest as Ami-chan, this would be _so_ much easier."_ Unfortunately, they weren't. She would have to overcome some difficult personalities to regain her friends and senshi. The primary example that came to her mind was the short-tempered Rei.

"_Rei's going to be the worst. I can feel it now. She hates me the most and she'll probably actually try to kill me if I were just to show up in front of her."_ She shuddered momentarily as the memory of the night her friends abandoned her flashed into her mind. _"Even then they had to restrain Rei, _before_ they dreamed up that terrifying plan of theirs. I can't go to her, especially not alone."_

She closed her eyes to shut the world away from her thoughts—not that she was paying attention to anything else going on around her anyway.

"_If I went to the others first, Minako and Makoto, maybe I could convince them to listen to me long enough. Right…?"_ However, she remembered the details of her nightmare. Although Rei dealt the final, lethal blow, Minako and Makoto were the first to attack her. Furthermore, they very much were involved with the plot. But she had to start somewhere, or else she would have to resign herself to the idea of never recovering her friends. That suggestion was inconceivable to her. She would rather die trying to salvage her most precious friendships. However, she would prefer to have her friends back _and_ live long enough to enjoy their company. So she needed a really good plan.

What would that plan be? She somehow had to convince them to stand down long enough for her to demonstrate her transformation, which took at least a minute—a minute where she would be completely defenseless. They had to trust her sufficiently enough to not think she was executing some underhanded plot—maybe doing to them the same thing she apparently did to the "real" Princess Serenity. It all had to occur somewhere private, of course, but where, and when? And what would happen if _he_ were to show up? Would he ruin everything? What was his role in everything? She needed some vital information to properly construct this massively complicated plan. She also needed to stop hearing that mumbling, buzzing sound next to her head so she could think clearly, as well as rid herself of that uncomfortable poking sensation on her right shoulder.

"Um, excuse me," she thought she heard something say in a low-pitched masculine voice, a voice that vaguely sounded like _his_.

"Mamoru…? Why are you here…?" she mumbled groggily, though to her it came out crystal clear.

"Who, me? I'm not Mamoru, whoever the heck that is," the male voice stated. "And you're in my seat, so please get up," it added in an irritated tone.

Usagi's head bolted up from her desk and her eyes shot open. She didn't know when she closed them or for how long, but as soon as the light hit her eyes she felt immense pain. Then the realization dawned on her: she had been in such a deep and contemplative sleep that she completely missed the bell signifying the end of class. A quick glance at the clock told her she had two minutes to get from history class on one side of the building, and upstairs at that, to gym class downstairs and completely on the other side of the building. A rapidly shrinking two minutes. She released a shocked yelp as she suddenly leaped up from her seat, disregarded as best as she could the dizziness that ensued, and hurriedly shoved her books haphazardly into her bag. She gave a few quick apologetic bows to her annoyed schoolmate before running out the door as quickly as her legs could take her.

She arrived at gym class three minutes later completely winded but thanking her lucky stars she didn't receive detention. _"Why can't Haruna-sensei be as understanding as Ayaka-sensei,"_ she thought as she walked to the changing area. She sat on one of the benches, her head hunched over her knees as she attempted to catch her breath. All that running had taken its toll, as despite Luna's training there was only so much she could do as plain-old Usagi. Transforming into Sailor Moon in the middle of the school building just so she could make it to the next class on time was completely out of the question. She removed her uniform skirt and blouse and placed them in one of the lockers. They were replaced by athletic shorts and a t-shirt, both articles navy blue with the t-shirt bearing the school's emblem on the left side of the chest. As she did so, her mind started to wander once again, and soon she found herself deeply pondering Mamoru's role in the plot.

"_Does Mamoru hate me as much as the other girls hate me?"_ her mind considered. _"Does he want me dead? But, why would he? I don't believe it. I can't believe it. But if he isn't part of their plot, why would he dump me at the same time the girls abandoned me? Is it just a coincidence or something more?"_

Her eyes glazed over slightly. She saw something round and white approach her from above, and she robotically swatted at it with a hand, sending it airborne.

"_I need to know what his role in all of this is. I need to see him. I desperately need to see him,"_ she thought. Her body shivered ever so slightly and her face became flushed. She mentally recoiled at the idea of the two of them being together again. _"But just to ask him some questions—that's all. I don't like him anymore, that jerk! He can date anyone he wants. I don't care! Even if it is Ami…"_

She saw the same round white object again, rapidly enlarging in size until the only thing in her vision was the color white, which itself soon faded into complete darkness.

_* SMACK *_

_* THUD *_

It was a wonder how Usagi managed to make it that far through gym class in her mental state without that inevitable event occurring. She was playing volleyball, and did so seemingly on auto-pilot for maybe five minutes before the ball, sent flying to the ground by a hard-hit attack, collided with the unsuspecting girl's face before it could reach its target. She collapsed to the floor soon after impact, causing the teacher and many of the other students to hover around her with abject horror and concern scrawled across their faces. There she remained, lying completely motionless on the hardwood floor, for a solid minute.

"Oh my goodness!" one girl screeched in a high-pitched voice.

"Somebody run and get the nurse," a woman commanded with a much lower-pitch.

"That had to hurt. I hope she's alright," a boy said softly.

"Is she dead?" one girl had the audacity to ask.

"Yomiko, why do you always think that way? Of course she's not dead!" the girl with the high-pitched voice replied angrily.

The students standing around Usagi felt a wave of relief and unmitigated joy wash over them when she released a faint grunt and finally started to move. The nurse arrived minutes later and escorted the woozy girl to her office. Fortunately she sustained no major injury besides some bruises from her uncontrolled fall, but it did allow her to sit out of what normally was her favorite activity in gym class. As she sat in the nurse's office, holding a bag of ice to her forehead, she resumed her nagging thoughts about Mamoru.

—|1|**2**|3|—

The end of the school day could not arrive soon enough for Usagi. She stood in the shade beneath a large oak tree and stared off into the distance, a blank expression covering her face. There were too many issues on her mind that she desperately wanted to resolve. She had far more questions than she had answers. Fortunately she knew there was somebody from whom she could obtain a few more precious answers. And, seconds later, that person briskly approached her with gleaming eyes and a tremendously large and bright smile on her face.

"Hi, Usagi-chan," Ami said cheerfully while waving enthusiastically at Usagi. The shine in her eyes faded slightly when she saw the blonde's worried face.

"Hey, Ami-chan," Usagi said softly. She turned and stared straight into Ami's eyes with laser-like focus, startling her blue-haired friend.

"What's wrong, Usagi?" Ami asked in a concerned tone, shaken by the massive change in demeanor in her new friend. _"Only a few hours ago Usagi-chan appeared to be absolutely cheery and back to her old self. I know she's been through a lot, but this feels too strange. What in the world happened?"_ she thought.

"Ami-chan," Usagi said slowly as she gathered her thoughts, her eyes narrowing, "I know you explained a lot to me earlier, but there's one more thing—actually, two more things, I guess—I need to know."

"What is that?" She was justifiably nervous for she knew there was one last thing the pair did not discuss, and she quickly reasoned _that_ was the reason for Usagi's dramatic shift in behavior.

Usagi stared even more intently into Ami's eyes, if that were even possible. She wanted to gauge Ami's reaction as accurately as she could manage to the question she prepared to ask. She opened her mouth and took in a huge breath of air, holding it for a second before slowly releasing it. She then moved her face so close to Ami's that their noses almost touched. Ami felt her heart flutter when Usagi approached so closely.

"Do you truly, _truly_ love Mamoru?" Usagi asked in a calm, quiet voice.

Ami remained silent for several moments, her heart furiously pounding and her mind racing. She knew the answer, she absolutely knew, but she feared what effect her answer would have on Usagi. Their friendship was renewed, but in many ways it was still tenuous, which was understandable given that she had just told her that the girls had planned to kill her. If Usagi still loved Mamoru, then tensions could rise between them once again. But she felt she couldn't stand there and contemplate the outcomes for much longer. She had to be strong and say what she felt to be true, what she truly believed. She loved him. With every fiber of her being she loved him. Her eyes widened and sparkled and her cheeks flushed merely upon thinking about him. And so, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath before she responded with only one word, one word spoken in as strong and resolute a voice as she could produce: "Yes."

Usagi was silent for several seconds before she let Ami know how she felt about the reply. Suddenly, her narrowed eyes widened and became very lively and bright. Her lips were pulled into a wide smile full of warmth. But the gentle appearance was fleeting, replaced by the same intense focus she wore just moments before. Nevertheless, Ami was fully cognizant of the rapid shift Usagi displayed in her emotions. Usagi took a step back from Ami but resumed the focused glare.

"Does Mamoru love you?" she asked just as calmly as before. The audacity of that question shocked Ami just as much as the previous question did.

"Yes, absolutely he does!" Ami said enthusiastically, with no doubt present in her tone. "Why wouldn't he?"

Usagi turned from Ami and leaned against the tree, her eyes closed and her head tilted slightly airborne, a pensive mood brewing within her.

"_Ami loves Mamoru deeply, I can see it in her eyes. But I can't really tell if Mamoru feels the same way. She thinks he does, but I don't know. Things are too strange right now,"_ Usagi thought. _"I need to see him again. I have to ask him some very important questions. I need to know his true motivations and where he stands. I need to know how he feels about Ami. I need to know how he feels about me."_ She sighed deeply.

Ami looked at her friend and her princess with worried eyes. She desperately wondered what was going through her mind.

"Usagi-chan…?" Ami asked cautiously, her voice trailing off.

Usagi turned to look at Ami, revealing dim, apprehensive eyes. "Do you trust me?" she asked softly. The same anxiety that clouded her eyes filled her voice.

"Of course I trust you, Usagi-chan. Why wouldn't I? _I_ should be asking _you_ that question," Ami replied in confusion.

"I want to see Mamoru, privately. I have some questions I need to ask him. I hope you don't mind."

"Okay… I don't see why you need my permission for that."

"It's just… I'm worried about his reaction in seeing me again, as well as your reaction," she whispered. _"And my reaction as well,"_ she thought.

"Well, I don't think he wants to kill you, if that's what you mean. He doesn't mention you much when we're together. I don't either," Ami said awkwardly.

"I guess I understand," Usagi said wistfully. _Of course_ they weren't going to talk about her when they're together. Certainly not in favorable terms. As far as Ami and Mamoru were concerned at that time she wasn't worth much discussion. There were happier and more interesting things to talk about besides his ex-girlfriend or her formerly ex-friend and fellow senshi. She pushed herself away from the tree and turned her back to Ami. "Well, I'm going to go see him anyway. And after that we can start working on our assignment," she said resolutely. She started toward the main gate but stopped when she heard Ami speak.

"Wait, you're going to go see him now?" Ami exclaimed with widened eyes. Usagi released a small sigh.

"It's the best time before late evening. That way I can actually concentrate on the project and not be distracted by my thoughts." She turned to face Ami once again, this time with warmer, gentler eyes. "It will be much better this way, for all of us," she said with a soothing calmness. With that, she turned for the final time and walked purposefully through the main gate and toward Mamoru's apartment.

—|1|2|**3**|—

Usagi arrived at the apartment less than ten minutes after leaving Ami and the school. She rode the slow, somewhat wobbly elevator up to the fifth floor. Despite being so sluggish, it was far superior to taking the stairs, and even with her training she didn't feel like expending so much energy climbing the steps. All available energy was necessary for the task at hand. The bell chimed and the door opened to reveal a bland, empty hallway. She stepped out and walked the short distance down the hallway to Apartment 502.

It had been just over a week since the last time she was there, in front of that apartment door. Memories from that horrible night flooded her mind, and she could feel once again all the suffering and heartache she received from Mamoru. She inhaled deeply, drawing the air into her lungs where she held it for several seconds. She brought to the forefront of her mind all those painful emotions as well as her doubts and fears. As she slowly exhaled, they all seemed to float away, leaving behind a strong, resolute girl. A girl who was ready to confront her ex-boyfriend for the first time since he so brutally abandoned her. She raised her hand and sent a series of loud, resounding knocks across the door. A few seconds later the door opened and revealed a dumbfounded Mamoru.

"Hello… Usagi?" Mamoru asked with utter confusion when he first laid his eyes upon the young blonde girl standing in his doorway.

"Mamoru," she said in a strong and clear voice that had a strangely calm tone.

His eyes narrowed, his brow furled, and his demeanor turned frosty. "Didn't I tell you not to come here ever again?" he asked brusquely.

"I have some questions I need to ask you," she said louder yet evenly. Her entire body tensed, although it was imperceptible to him.

"I don't want to talk with you now. I want you to go away," he replied edgily.

She looked up and pointed her gaze directly into his eyes. He shuddered slightly when he noticed those steely blue eyes lacked the cheerful shine they typically had when they were a couple. But they were not despondent eyes either. They were strong and tenacious eyes, eyes that shouted to him that there was nothing he could do to force Usagi from his apartment door.

"I don't care whether you _want_ to talk with me or not. I'm going to ask you these questions." With that forceful proclamation, she literally shoved herself into his apartment, pushing the much older and taller man backwards in the process.

"Usagi!"

"Mamoru," she said calmly once again as she slowly closed the door behind her. "Too many strange things have happened recently, and not just between us."

"And, so what of it?"

She responded to his dismissiveness with a look on her face that, if it could be translated to a physical action, would have instantly resulted in his demise. He was immediately taken aback, not to mention completely frightened, by her disposition.

"Okay, okay. Go ahead and ask whatever you want to ask," he said as he sat down onto a tan sofa near the back of the main living room, turning his head away from her.

She stepped into the living room and stopped a few feet in front of him and next to the kitchen entrance. She remained standing so she could more easily and directly glare at him. Also, she did not want to remain too comfortable there, not that he made it a friendly atmosphere in any way. She wanted to make this meeting as short as possible. Part of it was that she passionately hated Mamoru. Hatred did not come easy for her at all, yet she hated the mere sight of the man. But, another strange and unwelcome feeling welled inside her and would not disappear despite her best attempts. From the moment she saw him her heart was beating furiously, and it was not at all due to anxiety. The worst thing was that she fully anticipated the emotion, and yet she could do nothing about it besides ask what she had to ask and leave.

"Mamoru, do you love Ami-chan? I mean, _truly_ love Ami-chan?" she asked forcefully and unambiguously. She leaned toward him slightly with her eyes narrowed and her gaze focused.

His appearance suddenly shifted to one of absolute tranquility. He displayed a small, warm smile as he thought about Ami, the girl he loved in this life almost as much he loved Princess Serenity in the past and more than he ever loved Usagi. He looked toward the pigtailed blonde with eyes that were gentle, yet she could immediately determine they were not for her.

"Yes, I love her. I absolutely love Ami," he said calmly and with utmost sincerity in his voice. She averted her gaze from him as she heard the words, looking instead through the glass doors that led to his balcony.

"Although it may not sound like it, I'm truly happy for you and Ami," she said softly and with a hint of dejection. She sighed.

"Could you tell me what Ami and I loving each other has to do with anything?" he asked in confusion and annoyance.

"Do you believe I am Princess Serenity?" she asked firmly, completely ignoring his question.

"Yes, of course I do. You transformed right in front of me. Why wouldn't I then think you were the princess?" he said exasperatedly.

Usagi blanched as soon as his words hit her ears. Unlike the girls, her senshi, who did not think she was the princess due to the ancient memory they received, he knew. He knew she was the princess, and yet he didn't bother to tell them. They were planning to steal the Silver Crystal from her to give it to whomever they thought was the real princess by any means necessary, even going as far as planning to kill her. And yet, he did nothing. Did… did he really hate her that much? Did he want her dead?

"Mamoru," she asked hesitantly, her voice barely above a whisper, as she started to tremble, "do you like me? I'm not asking if you love me, just if you like me, as a friend."

He sat in silent contemplation for a few moments before shaking his head. "As far as I feel right now I would be much happier if I didn't see you ever again," he said calmly with a hint of frustration present in his tone.

Her heart sank like a stone, and yet she managed to find the strength within herself to ask the next question.

"Do you hate me?" she asked in a sorrowful whisper. Her sapphire blue eyes paled and lost whatever liveliness they once had. _"Why do I feel so sad about this? I'm not supposed to like him anymore,"_ she thought, confused at her sudden depression.

The question caught him off guard, prompting a markedly hesitant reply. "Well… I didn't say that, really." His gaze shifted to the floor.

"Then, you wouldn't mind if I were dead?" She slowly walked into the kitchen and approached a set of steak knives in their onyx black holder.

"What are you doing, Usagi?" he asked nervously as he noticed her moving into the kitchen. He lifted himself from the sofa and approached the kitchen.

She grabbed one of the large, extremely sharp knives in her right hand and held the blade to her stomach. He froze when he saw that.

"You wouldn't mind if I were to kill myself right now, right in front of you, would you?" she asked with a very strange calm about her. Her expression was blank and her eyes effectively dead.

"Usagi, please put the knife down," he pleaded with even more concern in his voice.

"Why? It's not like you care at all about me. And you said it yourself. You don't want to see me ever again. And, so, you wouldn't." Her entire body felt numb as she stared at him with lifeless eyes. _"Please, please let me be right,"_ she implored silently to herself. She then moved the point of the blade, ever so slowly, toward her navel.

"_Usagi!_" he yelled as he unfroze himself and launched himself toward her, forcibly knocking the knife from her hand as the pair collapsed to the floor. The blade landed against the hard tile with a loud, reverberating clang.

"Why on Earth would you even think about doing that?" he yelled furiously as he pushed himself up from the floor. He stared at her with stormy blue eyes.

"Why would you care?" she asked morosely. She reached for the knife once again but was restrained by him pushing her to the floor and pinning her down with his arm.

"Why are you doing this?" he asked angrily.

"Get off of me," she whispered with an equal amount of vehemence.

"No, not if you're going to pull that stunt of yours once again."

"Why? Is it because you're afraid I'll mess up your pristine floor? Well then I'll just do it outside where you don't have to worry about cleaning," she replied with a combative tone. She pushed against him in an attempt to get him off of her and reach for the knife but to no avail. And for that she was visibly frustrated and, at the same time, secretly pleased.

"Absolutely not!" he exclaimed in utter shock. He was perplexed at her suicidal behavior and was determined to not let her act on that. "I'm not going to let you kill yourself here or anywhere else!"

"Why?" she asked defiantly with narrowed, angry eyes staring directly into a wide and startled pair belonging to the horribly confused man hovering above her as he continued to pin her down onto the cold tile.

"Because… because, despite everything else, I do care about you, after all," he replied. The anger had dropped away, replaced by a soft and hesitant, yet utterly and blatantly sincere tone.

"_I knew it,"_ Usagi thought as a wave of unmitigated joy swept through her body. She knew the next few moments would have been far more complicated if he really didn't care about her enough to at least stop her from killing herself. Or at least pretending to kill herself. She hated the way she was manipulating Mamoru and the deception took so much of her energy. She wasn't as good at acting as Minako and she was afraid of exposing her plan before she could get the necessary information from him. On the other hand, she did not know what insane, unbearably miserable being possessed her when she heard him say once again that he did not love her, or even like her. Because of that, she had expended an equal amount of energy to prevent herself from plunging the knife into her stomach. Actually committing suicide certainly was _not_ a part of her plan. But everything was worth it as she had attained the knowledge she desperately needed. If he didn't want her to kill herself, then he very likely didn't want anyone else killing her, nor was he about to kill her himself. He wanted her alive. He probably didn't even know about the girls' plan. He may not have loved her anymore, or really even liked her, but he cared about her and that was sufficient. Disappointing, but sufficient. With that done, she could settle down and ask the remainder of her questions.

"Why did you push me away? Why did you dump me so harshly?" she asked softly as she relaxed her muscles and allowed her arms to drop to her sides.

"I already told you why," he said softly in a voice that contained no anger. He slowly lifted his arm and allowed the girl to push herself from the cold tile floor. His eyes warily followed her just in case she made another move for the knife lying in the middle of the floor, but instead she leaned against the back wall.

"I know. I remember. I just… I don't think any of it matters anymore. I'm not that same person anymore." She pulled her knees up to her chest and rested her head upon them. Her eyes were alive once again, but they displayed sadness instead of joy, and they stared at a point off in the distance. But that was perfectly fine with her.

"I've noticed that you've changed since the last time I saw you." He picked the knife off the floor and placed it into the sink, then walked to the wall and lowered himself next to Usagi. They sat next to each other for several anxiously quiet minutes, both staring off into space, both fearful of what would happen if they looked each other in the eyes once again.

"Mamoru, do you know what the other girls have been doing?" she whispered as she broke the awkward silence.

"What do you mean?" he asked, also in a whisper, with confusion in his voice.

"They all became very distant, very distrustful of me, at the same time we began to slowly drift apart." Her morose eyes remained fixated on some random object on the other side of the room. She could feel her heart beating lightly within her chest. "Then last week, they all completely abandoned me."

"I sensed you guys were slowly separating, but I didn't know it was as bad as that," he said in light sorrow.

"They abandoned me the same day you dumped me."

Mamoru felt his heart sink into his stomach, and for the first time since leaving her he felt regret for his actions. As Ami and he frequently met to study he realized that he loved her, much more than he loved Usagi, and he was ecstatic when he knew that Ami loved him just as deeply. Somewhere, somehow he lost the yearning for Usagi and the desire for her constant presence. He no longer was drawn by her quirky child-like behavior or was amused by her klutzy charm. It was at that time, a few weeks before the day he broke up with her, that he realized he no longer truly loved her and that he loved Ami instead. He deliberated how he was going to break up with Usagi, knowing the ancient bond they had as Serenity and Endymion would be broken in the process. The act would have to be harsh so that she would immediately understand that they were finished, but not so harsh that it would drive her to do something desperate. And he had expected she would have the emotional support of her friends during the breakup. But as she sat there, he realized he may have been too forceful in his words and too hateful in his actions the last time he saw her. He had left Usagi completely abandoned, which was the last thing he wanted to do. He now wondered where she found the strength to survive even that long.

"I'm sorry, Usagi. I truly am sorry," he said softly. She could tell he was being sincere, but his apology wouldn't change any part of their situation so she effectively ignored it.

"Don't worry about it now," she replied somewhat coldly. She turned her expressionless eyes down to the floor, making sure to not look in his direction. "But, you still didn't answer my original question."

Mamoru sighed. He didn't know what else to say besides what he truly believed and felt. "I broke up with you because I fell in love with Ami, and I realized I loved her more than I loved you," he said slowly and calmly in an understanding tone that was lined with his own remorse. "I didn't realize what you and your friends were going through when I was trying to sort through my feelings. I was cruel to you because I wanted to ensure that you didn't think we had any chance at being together again. If I knew you didn't have your friends to help you I would have done it differently. But, in any case, I didn't want to risk you trying to get back with me and damaging my relationship with Ami. In the end, I ended up hurting you more than I wanted to."

"I don't think you have to worry about that," she said curtly. "I'm fine with you and Ami being together, and I'm also fine with not being with you as long as I know that you don't completely hate me."

"To answer your earlier question honestly, I don't hate you, Usagi. I don't think I can even bring myself to truly hate you. I hope you understand that."

"I do, Mamoru. I do," she whispered. She sighed deeply and stood up from the wall. She swatted at her skirt to push it back down and straighten it before taking a few steps away from the rear wall and a still-seated Mamoru. She stopped next to the sink, her back still turned to Mamoru.

"Usagi…" His eyes widened and thoughts about what she might attempt to do to herself again flashed through his mind. His muscles reflexively tensed in anticipation of having to rapidly leap from the floor.

"Relax, Mamoru. I'm fine," she said calmly and in a sincere tone. "But you may want to stand anyway, if only to see me out the door, since you're already halfway up."

With an expression of shock in eyes, Mamoru stood up from the kitchen floor. _"Usagi truly is a different girl now,"_ he thought. He slowly walked toward her and as he came closer she started to walk away from him, out of the kitchen and back into the living room, as if she wanted to maintain some physical distance between them. He stopped at the threshold between the kitchen and the living room.

"So, you said there were strange things going on. Was there anything else you wanted to ask?" he asked in a warm voice.

Usagi, who was standing in the middle of the living room at that point in time, closed her eyes and appeared to be in deep contemplation for several seconds.

"Actually, come to think of it, have you heard Ami or any of the other girls talking about some other sort of mission?" she asked in an inquisitive tone, hiding any particular worry she had of revealing too much information to him.

"Besides trying to defeat Queen Beryl and Metalia, nothing I know about. What made you think there's anything else?" he said with some confusion in his voice.

"Nothing in particular," she replied calmly. She paused for a moment, looking up at the ceiling before speaking again, this time in earnest. "By the way, could you not mention any of this to Ami, please?"

"I don't think she needs to know," he resolutely replied. Both were committed to maintaining that secret, as the repercussions would be severe for both if Ami were to know exactly what happened that evening.

She turned and walked the short distance to the apartment door. As she reached for the door handle she was interrupted by Mamoru yelling to her from the living room.

"Usagi!" he yelled to attract her attention before she exited the apartment and he potentially lost any chance to talk with her.

"Hmmm?" she mumbled as she her hand rested on the door handle. She paused, but she didn't dare turn around to look at Mamoru.

"There's one question I'd like to ask you, if you don't mind," he said anxiously. She slowly nodded, a motion he understood as a signal to begin talking. He inhaled deeply and gradually released a nervous sigh before speaking. "How do you feel about me, after all of this?"

Usagi stood at the door in utter silence, deliberating what answer to give him, if any. He remained stationary in the middle of the living room, his heart pounding in his chest in nervous anticipation and his eyes practically boring a hole into the back of her head. She refused to turn around to meet his gaze, preferring to stare at the dark brown-stained wood door. After several seconds of deep thought on her side and increasing panic on his she finally revealed her answer.

"I've come to realize that I may need to stop hating you so much," she said flatly. She paused as his heart seemed to drop even further than when he learned of her abandonment by her former friends. But then he heard her speak once more. "I've also realized that I _definitely_ need to stop loving you," she added in the exact same tone.

With that statement Usagi turned the door knob, pulled open the door, and walked purposefully into the hallway and toward the elevator. Mamoru merely stood there in the middle of the living room as she departed. He knew he may not see her as often as he used to after such a meeting. However, that didn't bother him. He was happy that the discussion took place and they both understood how one regarded the other. He knew that he could be with Ami in peace and at the same time that Usagi would be okay. So as his former love left he stood there and allowed the faintest of smiles to grace his lips.


	15. Making Plans

**Chapter 15: Making Plans**

Usagi sauntered through the large glass doors that led from the main lobby of Mamoru's apartment to a busy sidewalk and street. While she was inside the apartment complex there was barely a glint within her eyes, a reflection of her glum mood. As she stepped from the dark lobby into the bright evening sunlight, her eyes bore a marvelous resplendence, and not all of it was due to the bright, low-hanging sun. She slowly realized that, indeed, she did not need to either love or hate Mamoru. Neither would have been healthy for her. If she did not stop hating Mamoru she would not have been able to appropriately perform her duties as a senshi, assuming of course she successfully reconciled the "differences" her senshi had with her. She indubitably would have to work alongside Tuxedo Kamen at some point during the conflict with the Dark Kingdom. Not even the powerful Princess Serenity was capable of the extreme amount of cognitive dissonance required to fully separate Mamoru Chiba from Tuxedo Kamen or Prince Endymion. At the same time she had to let go of her lingering love for Mamoru, a love that might or might not have been entirely based on past memories of the romance between Serenity and Endymion. If she could not put that aside, she would have grown increasingly jealous of Ami, thus risking the destruction of her newly recovered friendship. So, for her own sake and her own happiness, she needed to completely reconsider her relationship with Mamoru. It, like many other things in her life, would be tough, but, as she had demonstrated that very same day, she had a knack for successfully completing extremely difficult tasks.

She looked down at her watch and noticed that an hour had passed since she had last seen Ami. She pulled her lips into a wide smile. Ami had proposed that they go to the library to work on their project as they had done the previous day, but Usagi wanted to do something different. Luna hadn't seen any of the girls in over a week, so she decided it would be nice for the two of them to meet at her house to work on Haruna's assignment. At the same time it gave them an opportunity to discuss their more pressing matters in relative privacy. She needed Ami's brain to come up with a coherent plan for regaining the loyalty and friendship of the other girls. Finally, they could actually relax and do something fun—play games, watch a movie, or whatever—if they managed to finish the assignment early or if they succumbed to mental numbness precipitated by all the schoolwork they had to do. So, she decided to call Ami and let her know of her plan as she walked back home, this time with more of a spring in her step.

"Hi, Ami-chan!" Usagi said cheerfully into the cell phone she held to her ear as she walked down the house-lined street. She skipped sideways, deftly avoiding an older gentleman attending to some plants lining the sidewalk.

"Usagi-chan, you sound like you're feeling much better," Ami said exuberantly. She was relieved that Usagi wasn't as pensive and anxious as she was earlier that evening.

"Yeah, I feel much better now that I have many more of my questions answered," Usagi said.

"How did the meeting go?" Ami asked innocently. Not that she was expecting any minute details, _per se_, but the next two sentences Usagi spoke were the only things she ever learned about it from either her best friend or her boyfriend.

"Um… it went… well. I learned a lot about Mamoru's role, or lack of a role, in everything that happened in the past few weeks," Usagi said, at first hesitantly but finishing confidently. She stopped right in front a steep curb that, for a more ancient, less graceful Usagi Tsukino, would have led to her tripping and falling into the busy intersection. "Now, all I need is a good plan for getting the other girls back. Could you help me with that? Please?" she asked, this time with a more pleading tone.

"Whatever you need I'm always there for you. So, yes, I'll definitely help you with the plan," Ami said with utter resolve and sincerity.

"Thank you, Ami-chan," Usagi replied warmly. She fell into pensive silence for a moment and smiled inwardly before speaking again in a playful tone. "Say, how about we work on our assignment at my place instead of at the library?"

"Well, the danger with that is there are too many things at your place for you to play around with and take your mind off the main task. I figured there's nothing for you to play with at the library, unless you _really_ like books."

"Ami-chan…" She heard a joyful giggle through the earpiece, which lead to a light laugh of her own. "I'm pretty sure I got rid of almost all of my distractions earlier today. Now I'm just looking forward to finishing the last few chapters of the book and getting this project done."

"Wait, you haven't finished it yet?"

"I planned to finish the book when I got back home last night, but I obviously couldn't 'cause of the state I was in," Usagi said nonchalantly. She didn't want to sound like she was holding it against Ami.

"Sorry…" Her woefully remorseful tone came as she wholeheartedly believed that Usagi was holding the inability to finish reading the book against her.

"Don't worry about it, Ami-chan. As I said, I'm almost done anyway. Maybe an hour or two at most is all I'll need."

"Hmmm… Well… in that case I'll be at your place in about ten minutes," a livelier Ami stated.

"That's great! I'll see you then!"

"Later, Usagi-chan!"

Usagi heard the click as the connection ended and she flipped shut the lid of her cell phone and placed it back into her bag. Despite her exhaustion, the chipper blonde practically skipped along the busy street to her house, excited by the prospect of welcoming Ami to her house for the first time in what she felt to be ages.

She walked through the front door of her house three minutes after speaking with her friend. She heard her mother working in the kitchen preparing something for dinner. She didn't know what it was but it smelled delicious. Not that she would have cared much about what it was as she was starving. She used so much energy that afternoon and evening and the lunch she had wasn't enough to replenish her. Who knew that transforming directly into Princess Serenity would sap so much of her strength? That was followed by her strenuous meeting with Mamoru from which she might not have returned if certain things went a little differently. She momentary shivered at the idea before another sweet whiff of Ikuko's cooking hit her nose, extinguished her morose thoughts, and reminded her of how hungry she was.

"Hi, mama!" she yelled gleefully as she ran into the kitchen and tightly hugged her mother.

"Good evening, dear. You seem to be quite the cheerful little bunny," Ikuko said with a warm smile across her face and a bright sparkle in her sepia-colored eyes. She was standing over a large pot on the stove and was slowly stirring its mysterious contents.

"Well, it's because I plan on having a special guest for dinner, if that's alright with you?" Usagi said in a melodious voice.

"Ami, right?" Ikuko said as her smile widened. Usagi nodded enthusiastically. "Well, of course she's absolutely welcome to stay for dinner or whatever else you guys want to do," she said contentedly.

Usagi set her bag down next to the sofa and plopped down onto one of the plush cushions. If she didn't have that assignment to complete, if she weren't so hungry in the presence of delicious-smelling food, or if she weren't so excited to see Ami once again, she would have fallen asleep right there. Forget her bed. She was that exhausted.

"I'm happy that you guys were able to reconcile whatever issue it was that split you apart. But I just wonder what happened between you guys," Ikuko said in a more concerned voice.

"You'll find out soon, mama. I promise."

"I hope so. This whole thing has me worried for you." Ikuko gazed down at her daughter with an apprehensive look on her face.

"I will be fine." Usagi's calm eyes instilled serene warmth into her mother. Ikuko nodded slowly as a sparkle returned to her eyes and returned to the kitchen to tend to the evening's dinner.

"When is Ami coming over?" Ikuko shouted from the kitchen as she stirred something in a large pot.

"In a few minutes. We're going to go up and work on our assignment for a while."

"That's fine. We should be ready to eat around eight o'clock tonight, so don't rush," Ikuko said with a wry grin.

"By the way, what are we having for dinner?" Usagi asked as she walked into the kitchen and tried to look over her mother's shoulder into the pot. It was difficult as she was so short, even when compared to her mother. Internally she cursed her lack of altitude.

"It's a secret," Ikuko said with a playful wink.

"Mou…" Usagi whined.

A few minutes later, the pair heard a melodic ringing echo throughout the house. It was the sound of the doorbell and it signaled that Ami finally had arrived. Ikuko set the stirring spoon down next to the pot and removed the light blue apron she was wearing. She then walked to the front door and opened it. Usagi stood out of the way behind her mom in silent anticipation for their meeting. She was more than happy to let her mother and Ami talk for a while uninterrupted. The blue-haired girl had her slightly bulging bag slung over one shoulder and wore a brilliant smile on her lips.

"Good evening, Tsukino-san," Ami said warmly as she saw Ikuko standing in the doorway.

"Hi, Ami-san, come on in. I haven't seen you in such a long time. I do hope you're having a pleasant evening so far," Ikuko asked in a friendly tone.

"It's been wonderful," Ami replied with a smile as she entered the residence. She removed her shoes and carefully placed them next to the more haphazardly strewn set of shoes that Usagi left behind.

"I'm happy to hear that. And I'm happy to see both of you doing so well given all that has occurred over the past week," Ikuko said with a gentle smile.

"So you've heard?" Ami asked as her joyful mood momentarily dimmed.

"Yes, Usagi told me all about how you, and the other girls for that matter, had treated her so badly over this past week," Ikuko said with surprising calmness given the subject.

Ami felt her heart being filled with profound despair. Usagi was downright miserable as a result of being abandoned. Ikuko sensed her daughter's palpable depression and, worse yet, knew the reason why. _"I was to blame for that. I caused Ikuko's daughter to have to endure so much pain and heartache. Maybe it was possible for Usagi to forgive me, but I doubt her mom would do the same, given how much pain I gave her daughter. But all I can do is let her know how remorseful I am, as futile as it may be,"_ she thought sadly. She turned to Ikuko and bowed, her eyes turned down to the floor.

"I'm deeply, deeply sorry for all the pain I caused Usagi, and for all the stress I caused the two of you to have," she uttered meekly.

"I imagine Usagi has already forgiven you, so I don't see why I should be too angry at you right now," Ikuko said reassuringly, her soft eyes retaining their gentleness.

Ami's cheeks flushed light red. _"Usagi's mother has to be an unbelievably wonderful person to know what I did to her daughter and yet be so pleasant toward me,"_ Ami thought. _"There's no doubt that's where Usagi gets her carefree personality. I wish my own mom was like that. Not to say that she isn't a wonderful person herself. It's just the rare times we get to talk when she's home from the hospital are always about more mundane stuff or school. … Anyway, I'm very glad that both Usagi and her mom have the heart to forgive me. I'm glad that someone like Usagi is my princess… and my best friend."_ As she stood there immersed in her thoughts the joyous shine in her eyes reappeared.

"Although I am curious as to what caused this whole mess in the first place," Ikuko said innocuously, jolting Ami back into reality.

"Hmmm… well, I guess you could call it the solar system's biggest misunderstanding," Ami said with a mischievous grin while winking at Usagi, who returned the wink. Ikuko merely shrugged, knowing that whatever the explanation was had to have been extremely hard to understand and quite interesting at the same time. She shelved her curiosity for the time being, hoping one day to be filled in on the details. But for right now she had a dinner to attend to and a guest to make feel at home.

"Well, Ami, you are welcome to stay for dinner if you'd like," Ikuko said cheerfully.

"I'd love to," Ami said politely yet happily as the smile expanded across her lips. Her stomach grumbled slightly as she noticed the appetizing aroma that wafted in from the kitchen. "What are we having?" she asked enthusiastically.

"It's a secret!" Usagi said excitedly. The blonde who up to that point had been unusually quiet looked at Ami and Ikuko with resplendent eyes and a tremendous grin.

"Yep, it's a secret," Ikuko confirmed to Ami.

"Whatever it is it smells delicious," Ami said.

"I can't wait for it," Usagi said as her stomach started to growl loudly. She took that as a sign to get away from the kitchen before she became too hungry from the smell alone. "Well, are you ready to work, Ami-chan?" she said.

"Of course," Ami replied with a friendly smile.

"I'll see you guys later," Ikuko said as she waved to the two girls.

With that, Usagi and Ami ran up the stairs to Usagi's bedroom. Usagi dropped her bag at the foot of the bed and fell backwards into the feathery soft mattress of her bed. Ami, on the other hand, gently placed her bag next to the door and sat in the rolling chair next to the desk, the seat turned so she could face her friend.

"So, Ami-chan, what am I going to do to get the rest of my friends back?" Usagi asked. Her voice was calm and soft, yet carried a small hint of sadness as she stared at the slowly spinning white blades of the ceiling fan. "It's not like I can just go up to them and show them the same way I showed you." That would have been the simplest way. However, she remembered how harshly Ami treated her when they were paired for the class assignment, before the water senshi's conversion. If that was how _Ami_ thought of her, she feared the welcome she would receive from the other girls.

"Unfortunately that might be the case," Ami said worryingly as she recalled the same memories of her past treatment of Usagi. "I fear they would be a lot harsher to you than I was. It would be far too dangerous." Her mind sped through the multitude of scenarios of what would happen if Usagi were to approach the other girls given the scheme they had to separate Usagi from the Silver Crystal. None of them ended very well for Usagi.

"That's why we need a good plan in order to convince them that I really am the princess."

"You would need a water-tight plan, actually. Since the other girls don't really trust you, I don't think you'll be able to approach them alone without them feeling threatened and trying to attack you. They still trust me, and we can try to use that to our advantage somehow. But I doubt I can go and try to convince them to believe that you're really the princess. They would think I've been brainwashed by you somehow and thus lose whatever trust they had in me. Never mind that then I'd be in the same boat as you."

"I certainly don't want that to happen to you." She released an anxious sigh. "I wish I could just go and show them all at once that I'm the princess and have them believe me and get this whole thing over with."

Ami's deep blue eyes suddenly developed a brilliant sparkle, and she literally jumped slightly from her chair as the inspiration hit her.

"You may be onto something, Usagi-chan. I think I have a way for you to prove to all the girls at once that you're truly our princess!"

Usagi shifted to her side so she could look directly at the unusually animated Ami. "How so?" she said with renewed vigor.

"My idea is to have us all meet somewhere, most likely the park as it has many secluded areas and it's pretty deserted at night. I'll tell everyone that I finally managed to find the princess and that I've managed to convince you to voluntarily give up the Silver Crystal to her."

"But who's going to play the princess?" Usagi asked astutely. If she and the princess were going to show up at the same time as different people, then _somebody_ would have to play the role.

Ami smiled and pointed at Usagi. "_You_ are, but only after I relay to them that the princess may be a little, ahem—" she produced a phony cough— "_late_ to the meeting," she said.

"Late?"

"Yes, late. That will be our excuse for the princess not showing up—for us lacking a sixth person."

"Wouldn't Rei see through that, or at least sense some form of deception?" Usagi asked worryingly.

"If Rei's perception powers were _that_ good, then she wouldn't have thought you were someone other than the princess in the first place," Ami said smugly. "She was in the same boat as all of us, so I think she would be convinced of my story."

"I see…" Usagi said, obtaining some satisfaction from Ami's reply.

"Anyway, the plan as I have it is that the four of us will arrive first, with you showing up a little while later. We may or may not transform into senshi at that time, though I can make an argument that being in our senshi forms allows for a proper meeting with the princess. In any case that doesn't matter for you. For you the important thing is when you show up you _cannot_ be transformed. Your explanation is that you can't give up the Silver Crystal when you're Sailor Moon, but that you have a way of doing it when you're not."

"And that's way is my direct transformation into Princess Serenity, right?" Usagi asked excitedly. Her eyes widened as she sensed she knew exactly what Ami was planning and reasoned that it may actually work.

"Correct!" Ami's eyes were as bright as her princess's, but they soon narrowed as she struck a far more serious tone to underscore the importance of her next point. "Now, I will try my hardest to prevent them from attacking you when you show up. But you have to remember that you _cannot_ be Sailor Moon _at all_. They are extremely suspicious of you and will distrust anything you do afterward if you transform," she said.

"I understand," Usagi said evenly while she closed her eyes and slowly nodded. She suddenly fell into a pensive mood and mulled over in her mind just what the girls would do to her when she arrived, and how Ami planned to stop them.

"That's good. Now, there will have to be a short period of time in which you'll have to wait. I'm sure it will be tense but you have to stay as calm as you can. I'll try to keep _them_ calm as well," Ami said, her tone awash with enthusiasm once again.

"But, what will you do to actually stop them if they try to attack me?" Usagi interrupted with palpable anxiety in her eyes. She leaned closer to Ami. "No offense, but it's not like you have any really strong attacks."

"No offense taken," Ami said flatly. "I don't think I really have to worry about them launching their main attacks at you. When I talk with them I'll try my hardest to convey to them the point that you're doing this of your own volition. I'll tell them that they may never be able to get the crystal if they attack you. If that fails, then I'll remind them that they do owe you one last chance."

Those final words struck a familiar chord within the blonde and she slipped in to a pensive mood. "Whatever happened to that?"

Ami's eyes dimmed as a crushing emotion of guilt smothered her. "I know Minako said that, and we honestly meant it at the time. But, as we thought more about you, what we thought you were, and how we were going to get the crystal from you, that somewhat fell by the wayside," Ami said as sadness permeated her quieted voice. "I'm sorry if we ended up lying to you."

Usagi sighed quietly. She was hurt for never having had a chance to prove herself to her friends, but quickly realized that their whole plan, in a way, was to do exactly that. Ironically, she was going to prove herself, but not just to show that she was a better Usagi Tsukino, but to demonstrate that she truly was the princess they doubted she could be.

"That's okay, Ami-chan. I consider _this_ my chance," Usagi said in a comforting tone. A small nod confirmed that her words were sincere.

Ami's mood gradually lightened, buoyed by Usagi's forgiveness of what she considered yet another betrayal of her friend. Her bout of melancholy subsided as she slowly sighed. Her eyes widened and began to shine brightly once again as she continued to detail her plan for ending this whole depressing matter once and for all.

"In any case, you have to stay calm, as I said before. Try not to be too worried in their presence, but also don't show any joy as that will give the plan away," Ami said calmly. She gestured toward her head. "I will be looking through my visor as if I were searching for the princess's presence. After a few minutes I'll say that the princess is arriving soon, and that you need to relinquish you're Silver Crystal now so we can have it ready to give to the princess. That would be your cue to do your transformation."

Usagi nodded vigorously. The plan was coming along excellently in her opinion. Her mind was in the process of replaying different scenarios of the proposed meeting when she heard her bedroom window slowly creak open and felt a small gust of wind tickle her arms. She flinched at the sudden disruption and rapidly turned to face the window. Ami was much more relaxed as she turned her attention to the black cat leaping between the curtains and onto the floor.

"Usagi-chan, I met with Artemis just now and heard that—"

Luna's excited words suddenly came to a halt as she noticed Ami was also in the room. She slowly turned to look the blue-haired girl dead in the face.

"Hi, Luna! Long time no see," Ami said cheerfully with a tremendous smile and a sparkle in her eyes. She gave the cat a small wave before holding her arms out.

"Ami!" Luna exclaimed as she jumped into the girl's waiting arms and snuggled into her chest. "It's been so long since I've seen you. I'm absolutely thrilled that you and Usagi have reconciled and are friends again."

"You have no idea just how happy I am as well," Ami said warmly.

"So now it's just the other three girls and Mamoru and we'll be back to normal," Luna said cheerfully.

The cheery smile on Ami's face rapidly faded and her face suddenly became very pale. "Um… well, actually…" she stuttered in a low voice. With great reluctance she was about to tell Luna about her relationship with Mamoru, but luckily Usagi stepped in and decided to do it for her.

"Mamoru is in love with Ami-chan, and Ami-chan is in love with Mamoru," Usagi said more calmly than Luna expected.

"_What?_ And you're _okay_ with that?" Luna yelled in complete shock, her hair standing on end. She looked up at the two girls, first in Ami's direction, then over at Usagi who was still lying in bed.

"Yes, I am. I'm perfectly fine with that, and I'm thrilled that Ami-chan and Mamoru deeply and truly love each other," Usagi said, giving Ami a gentle smile. Ami sensed that Usagi was utterly sincere and returned Usagi's smile by sending her an even larger, brighter grin.

"But…"

"It's fine, Luna," Usagi interjected. "I know we were fated to be together, but that was in the past, at the time of the original Silver Millennium. I get to decide my own fate now, and that fate doesn't necessarily include Mamoru." She spoke with such confidence that Luna immediately understood she was absolutely through with the Earth's prince. The blonde lifted herself from the bed and turned so that she was sitting on it and facing Ami and Luna. "So, you said you met with Artemis? Do you happen to know what he thinks of me?" she asked eagerly.

"He's far more supportive of you than the girls are right now," Luna said while leaping from Ami's lap to the floor. "It's just that he's stuck with Minako so he can't do much to help right now. He's trying in his own way to persuade the girls to think more highly of you, but every time he mentions your name, Minako just goes silent and tries to change the subject. Though it's not as bad as when the girls are together. Just hearing your name causes Rei to go absolutely ballistic. Makoto just starts muttering things to herself, and not very nice things at that."

"I see. Well, I'm glad that he still supports me. I hope to see him soon," Usagi said as a light smile graced her lips.

Usagi looked up at the spinning fan blades. She was thrilled as she found yet another ally for her cause. At the same time, she felt so heartbroken for poor Artemis, who she hadn't been able to see for so long. The snow white cat was stuck having to listen to the girls—well, mostly Rei—denigrate her, and there was not much he could do about it. She was certain Artemis felt utterly disgusted by how she was being treated, but it was okay. All of that would be over soon and none of those words would matter anymore. It would all end when they executed their plan, for which they absolutely had to finalize the details. She knew Luna had some important information to relay to her and Ami and she didn't like forcing Luna to wait, but the plan had to come first.

"Luna," Usagi said calmly as she serenely gazed at Luna, "Ami and I were discussing a plan for how to reveal to the others that I'm truly the princess."

"Why would you have to do that? They don't think you're the princess?" Luna asked in shock.

"No, they don't," Ami said softly as her head hanged low. "That is what precipitated this whole situation. We didn't think that Usagi was actually Princess Serenity. We received ancient memories of our past lives and our promise to defend the princess. But Sailor Moon was not a part of those memories. We saw Usagi transform into the princess once before, but we didn't know if she really was the princess or just somehow obtained her powers and the silver crystal. At some point, based on what we saw of her at the time, we decided that Usagi couldn't be the princess, and so we decided to search for someone we considered the real princess. On the day we abandoned Usagi, our mindset was that she was a threat and that we needed to separate her from the Silver Crystal as soon as possible. Even if that meant we had to kill her in order to do that." Ami's tone had taken on immense sadness by the time she stopped speaking. Luna's shocked expression only grew larger.

"But, in any case, we don't have to worry about that anymore as Ami-chan came up with a brilliant plan for me to prove to all of them that I'm the princess! Isn't that right, Ami-chan?" Usagi said excitedly and at the same time with a reassuring tone as she noticed Ami's depression and Luna's distress.

Ami's dejection appeared to slowly disappear as once again Usagi's words calmed her. She coughed softly before she spoke.

"Yes, I do have what I think is a plan that will work," Ami said emphatically. "I intend to have Usagi demonstrate that she is the princess in front of everyone by pretending that she decided to voluntarily give up the crystal during a meeting with a person whom everyone else would consider the true princess. Of course, since Usagi _is_ the princess, that other person would not show up, or as I said earlier, would be late. Importantly, the way that I'll describe to everyone for Usagi to give up the crystal would be, in reality, her transformation to Princess Serenity."

Luna looked at Ami with a dazzling glint in her amber-colored eyes. She was thrilled to have Ami's assistance, especially as the young genius came up with such an excellent plan. But then she realized there was something vitally important missing that could throw the entire scheme into disarray. The shine in her eyes dimmed slightly.

"It seems like a great plan so far, but I have to ask, why would Usagi suddenly want to give up her crystal?" she asked cautiously. "Unfortunately I wasn't able to get all the details of why the girls did what they did or your current plan, but it just doesn't seem right. If I were them, I wouldn't think that Usagi would just out-of-the-blue decide to give up something so important. I think they would be suspicious of her." Luna looked toward her charge, who nodded in a manner that seemed to say "_good point_".

"Don't worry, I thought of that as well," Ami replied reassuringly. She turned to look at Usagi. "Before I realized how grave of a mistake I had made in doubting you, I told the girls that I was working with you on the assignment we plan on doing later tonight. They wanted to hurry and try to take the crystal from you as soon as possible," she said strongly but with hints of shame and remorse in her voice. "I convinced them to wait, partly because I was being selfish. I needed you alive and in one piece to get this assignment done and receive a good grade. But at the same time, and I don't know why I thought of it when I did, but I told them that I could probably get you to give up the crystal without having to harm you." She looked down at her feet as her eyes dimmed and her mood momentarily became sullen. "At the same time, we continued to plan for taking the crystal from you by force, and we were going to do that Friday evening."

Usagi gazed at Ami with amazingly gentle eyes. She knew exactly what drove Ami to postpone what would have been her demise.

"There always is a better way," she whispered.

"What's that?" Ami asked with growing curiosity as she lifted her head.

"The reason you convinced them to wait, and likely the reason they went along with it. It's our mantra from long ago. You may not consciously remember it but I'm sure you feel it," Usagi said warmly with more enthusiasm.

Ami closed her eyes. _"There always is a better way."_ She didn't remember ever explicitly hearing that before, at least not in the context she imagined it. Yet she sensed an innate familiarity with that message deep within her soul.

"I… It feels like something I've heard before," she said softly with a pensive expression on her face. "I don't remember it, _per se_, but it just feels… right."

"I thought so," Usagi said softly with a tender smile.

"So, when are we going to have Usagi show the girls that she's the princess?" Luna asked impatiently. As important as that topic was, she wanted to get on to the next topic which she regarded with an equal level of importance. Usagi looked at Luna with an annoyed frown.

"Ah, right. I guess we can take advantage of this Friday, since we already had that day planned and everyone would be available," Ami said. "How about six o'clock that evening or a little while later?"

"That will work for me," Usagi said nonchalantly.

"Well, I guess I'll have to talk to them soon and tell them that we're meeting on Friday. I'll call them on the communicators tonight. I think that will lend a little bit more credence to the plan," Ami said as a smirk spread across her lips.

"I agree," Luna said confidently. She turned to Usagi. "I hope it all works out for you and that you get all of your friends back. I don't want this to last any longer than it already has," she said sympathetically and with absolute sincerity.

"I believe it will work," Usagi said softly, yet resolutely. Her eyes held a gentle shine.

"So, Luna, you had some important information of your own?" Ami asked.

"Yes, I do," Luna said as anxiety enveloped her once again. "There has been a rash of people, mostly women, who lately have suddenly disappeared without a trace. Nobody knows what has happened to them, but we believe it would have something to do with the Dark Kingdom. Also, it seems there has been an increase in the number of youmas appearing recently. I heard that the other senshi have been fighting them and were able to defeat them without your help Usagi, so they had to have been extremely weak. But why would they use such weak youmas now?" Luna's voice trailed off as she contemplated the Dark Kingdom's motivations.

"Well… the youmas weren't as easy as we thought they were," Ami said apprehensively.

"I didn't get a chance to tell you this last night because I was such a wreck, but I fought those same youmas that the others did," Usagi said while briefly looking at Ami, sending her a _"please don't beat yourself up over this"_ look of compassion. Ami understood and remained steady after receiving Usagi's fleeting expression. "When I fought them they were using powers very much like Rei's, Makoto's, and Minako's."

"You can't possibly mean…" Luna said hesitantly.

"Yes. The youmas were nothing but a ruse, and a nasty one at that. They took our powers and used them against us," Ami said calmly. "I thought—we all thought—we defeated them before, but now it looks like they deliberately left after learning our attacks."

Luna was momentarily rendered speechless, her face frozen in an expression of absolute horror. Fake youmas. It appeared the Dark Kingdom was becoming far more resourceful in its tactics, a far cry from the earlier, much simpler set-piece battles of youma against senshi.

"Also, I encountered Kunzite last night," Usagi said, her blanched face and sullen eyes revealing her tremendous fear and anxiety. "He was attacking this woman when Ami and I found him. He told us that he was looking for me, _specifically_ me, and that he wanted me to go with him, probably to Queen Beryl. I told him that I wouldn't go, and the woman he attacked suddenly disappeared into thin air."

"What on Earth are they planning, and why would they want to take you and not anyone else?" Luna mused.

"Could it be they know that Usagi's the princess and that's why they're targeting her?" Ami suggested with slight panic.

"If that's the case, we need to make sure they definitely don't get a hold of Usagi," Luna said emphatically. She turned to the blonde. "Who knows what they plan to do to you if they manage to capture you," she said with trepidation.

"Which is why this Friday is so important," Usagi said softly. "It will be extremely difficult to fight against Kunzite if we're not united."

"In the meantime, we all should be extremely careful. We cannot let _anything_ happen to Usagi. I especially will not allow it," Ami said gravely, turning to look at Usagi with unwavering eyes. Luna nodded, while Usagi just stared back at Ami, in awe at her senshi and friend's utter devotion to her.

"I'll alert Artemis tonight about what Kunzite seems to be planning," Luna said hurriedly. She leaped onto the windowsill. "He can then relay that to the other girls. Even if they don't trust Usagi right now, they still need to be aware of Kunzite's activities. I will be back in a few hours." Luna jumped from the windowsill to the roof, to the bushes and finally to the ground as she rushed as quickly as possible to Minako's house.

"Well, I guess there's not much else we can do now besides work on our assignment," Ami said resignedly. She released a small sigh before pulling her bag to her and removing some books, placing them on Usagi's desk.

"I guess not," Usagi said pensively as she nodded in agreement. Her stomach growled, and from that she knew she faced a difficult few hours of work ahead.


	16. Dinner and a Conversation

**Chapter 16: Dinner and a Conversation**

While Luna looked for Artemis to tell him the important news, Ami and Usagi used the time before dinner to work on their assignment. The pigtailed blonde laid across her soft, cushy bed with one of her pink pillows squeezed under her stomach and read the last few chapters of the book while fighting her increasing hunger. Her saving grace for maintaining any semblance of concentration and not succumbing to her growling belly was the fact that the book was so engrossing. Who knew reading something other than manga would be so damn fun? She made a mental note to thank Ami for choosing such an excellent book and to see if the author had written a sequel.

Meanwhile, Ami used the hour Usagi spent reading to complete her part of the assignment's written section. She had to describe her thoughts about the story as well as answer some technical questions relating to the story. Essentially it was a short book report of no more than two typed pages. She didn't have her notebook computer with her, and adapting the Mercury computer for the job would have been too much of a hassle, so she typed it on Usagi's computer, _after_ making some software modifications so that she could type in English characters. Her mind pondered how Usagi ever thought she could get through Haruna's English class without a computer that could type in English.

Once Usagi finished the book, she started writing her portion. She found writing English to be a tougher task for her than reading it, and as a result she required a full hour to type out the two pages of text compared to Ami's thirty minutes. She felt embarrassed to ask Ami for help so many times, but was grateful for her friend's assistance. An enormous feeling of satisfaction and pride enveloped her when she finally completed the writing, resulting in a magnificent smile being plastered on her face. It also resulted in a peculiar, yet completely understandable, case of paranoia born from a fear of losing the precious fruits of a solid hour of difficult work. It was almost comical to watch the girl as she saved one copy of the report on a portable drive, emailed a copy of the manuscript to herself, and then printed _two_ copies of the report, giving one to Ami "just in case."

Next was the two-person part of the project, the five-minute-long dialogue that they had to present before the class as well as submit to Haruna in written form. Usagi removed her notebook from her bag and flipped to the page onto which she wrote her suggestions when she last met with Ami. She read each of her suggestions aloud to Ami and was utterly amazed that at no time did her friend outright reject one of her ideas. Instead, she opted to use every single one of them in the dialogue. Yes, every one of them. Not to say that they were all used verbatim or left intact after discussing them, but that didn't matter. By the time Usagi reached the last item written on the page she felt so jubilant that light tears started to fall from her resplendent eyes.

"Usagi-chan, what's wrong?" Ami asked anxiously when she saw what she interpreted as sad tears.

"Nothing… nothing, Ami-chan," Usagi replied as her lips pulled themselves into a warm smile. "I know I shouldn't be crying. It's silly, really, the reason. But, whatever." She wiped some tears away from her blushing cheeks with the back of her hand. "I was just thinking that this is the first time I've ever been truly useful in any project like this."

"Usagi-chan…" Ami said in a laudatory tone. A happy grin appeared on her face and her own eyes gained a marvelous shine. "It feels great, doesn't it?" Usagi nodded enthusiastically.

A gentle knock was heard emanating from the bedroom door, which soon slowly opened. Ikuko stepped into the bedroom with a light smile on her face. At the same time, the most delicious smell ever wafted into the bedroom.

"Dinner is ready for anyone who wants it," she said cheerfully.

Usagi wasted not even a millisecond in rising to her feet and running to the door. This would have seemed strange and downright rude to anyone unfamiliar with the girl and her behavior concerning food. However, Ami just smiled as she slowly stood from her chair and walked to the door. It was another facet of the old, and yet completely new, Usagi. For her, it symbolized another step toward normalcy.

Usagi bolted down the stairs to the dining room table as Ami and Ikuko sauntered calmly behind her. Ami and Usagi took their seats next to each other and across from Shingo, while her dad Kenji sat at one end of the rectangular table. Ikuko was in the kitchen, a quintet of large bowls at the ready to contain the mysterious dinner that she had prepared.

"Ami-san, you'd better guard your plate so that you actually get to eat, sitting next to pig-Usagi like that," Shingo teased with a wry smirk. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something turn a bright red color.

"Oh, you little…!" Usagi yelled as she stood and reached across the table at her annoying kid brother. Shingo scooted backward, out of her reach, and stuck his tongue out at her. Kenji grunted as his eyes shifted from one child to the other.

"_Enough_, you two!" Ikuko shouted from the kitchen. "Don't think that just because Ami's here that I won't send both of you to your rooms without dinner."

That threat was enough to cause Usagi to freeze and slowly slink back into her chair. An even larger smirk arose on Shingo's face while his sister glared at him with narrowed, angry eyes. Ami raised a hand to her mouth to stifle a giggle and failed miserably as Usagi clearly heard her friend laughing at her. Usagi snapped around to face the blushing blue-haired girl.

"Ami-chan…" Usagi whispered almost inaudibly in an annoyed tone.

"Sorry, I couldn't help it," Ami whispered with a playful grin and wink directed at the incensed blonde. "I really missed coming over here for dinner, as I forgot how entertaining you and your brother were."

She forcefully crossed her arms in front of her chest and huffed loudly. She turned another infuriated glare at Shingo. "Well, if he wasn't such an annoying brat I wouldn't be like this," she said a little louder just so she knew he could hear her. Shingo made another pestering face at her, causing her to turn red with anger once again.

"Usagi, don't let him get to you, as that'll only encourage him," Ami whispered calmly into her princess's ear with one hand as she wrapped her free arm around her waist as if to comfort and restrain her simultaneously. "Besides, you don't want to miss what Ikuko made us for dinner, do you?" she added teasingly.

Usagi slowly calmed down, the red fading from her face and eyes, and thought about dinner. She hadn't eaten anything in several hours and she wasn't about to let that little runt make her go until tomorrow without eating anything else. Also she was very curious about what her mother had prepared and why it smelled so good. Fortunately for her the secret would soon be revealed as Ikuko walked out of the kitchen holding a bowl in each hand. She set one of the bowls in front of Ami and the other in front of Usagi before grabbing another pair of bowls for her son and her husband. She took the last bowl and sat down at the table across from Kenji and next to Usagi and Shingo.

"I hope everyone likes it. It took me a few hours and two tries to get it right," she said with a hint of nervousness in her otherwise melodic voice. "It's a kind of soup from America, called… um—" she looked up at the ceiling in deep contemplation— "I think it's called _gumbo_. It's a strange name, very hard to say, but it's supposed to taste really, really good. I guess we'll see. It may be a bit spicy, though I tried to not make it so bad." She gave a slight, nervous smile.

Everyone bowed their heads and held their hands together in Namaste and a chorus of _itadakimasu_ echoed through the dining room. Usagi was the first person to move as she had completely run out of patience. She reached for the spoon that was placed next to the bowl and scooped up the first thing she could, which happened to be a small piece of shrimp. She jammed the shrimp into her mouth. Her eyes widened and shined resplendently.

"It's absolutely delicious, mama!" she yelled joyfully. She took another spoonful from the bowl, this time containing sausage and steamed rice and some bits of celery. She found it equally enjoyable. Several spoonfuls later her bowl was empty. This foreign, exotic meal was so delectable that she essentially vacuumed it into her stomach. She wanted more, but she didn't know if she was allowed seconds. It was probably pretty expensive to prepare such a unique dinner, and Ami was there so it was a good idea not to be rude. Well, no less rude than her unmannered eating style allowed. She looked around at everyone else's bowls, which were still mostly full. Her dimmed eyes and slight pout revealed her hesitancy which her mother immediately detected.

"Don't worry, dear. If you want some more, you can go and get some more. There's plenty available," Ikuko said with a warm smile. "Ami-san won't think you're being rude. Isn't that right?" She turned her gaze to Ami.

"Yep," Ami said with a slight nod and a gentle smile directed at Usagi. "I might have some more as well once I'm done with this," she said lightheartedly.

"_You?_ More?" Usagi replied in shock and confusion.

"Well, you're not the only person allowed to be hungry, considering everything that's happened today," Ami said with a smirk.

"But if that's the case, then I'm allowed thirds," Usagi said playfully.

"If you keep eating like that you'll expand like a balloon," uttered Shingo with a wry smile on his lips.

Usagi turned bright red, and it took all her strength and self-control to not jump across the table at him again, but she succeeded in not doing so. Instead, she merely gave him another dagger-filled glare as she excused herself and stood from the table, bowl in hand, and headed toward the kitchen. She returned to the table a minute later with a newly filled bowl of scrumptious gumbo.

"So, Shingo's school is having an awards ceremony this Friday, Ami-san," Ikuko said cheerfully to the blue-haired girl as Usagi set her bowl down and sat into her chair. "He should be receiving awards for perfect attendance and for having exceptional grades in all his classes."

"That's wonderful!" Ami said to Shingo in a congratulatory tone. She smiled warmly. Shingo gave a somewhat haughty smile in return.

"The ceremony is at Juuban Elementary school at six o'clock that evening. We're all going to be there to support him and show him how proud we are of him," Kenji said boastfully.

Usagi blanched and coughed, nearly spitting a piece of shrimp at Shingo. Luckily she managed to raise her hand to her mouth in time. Ami's reaction wasn't as extreme but both girls immediately recognized the troubling issue that just arose.

"Umm… you said six o'clock, right?" Usagi asked hesitantly.

"Of course, dear," Ikuko replied warmly.

"Don't tell me you forgot," Kenji said apprehensively and with slight annoyance.

Usagi gulped audibly. So much had happened to her over the past week, let alone the past few weeks. She was completely abandoned by her friends, she was cruelly dumped by Mamoru, and she almost lost Naru. With all of that, she had completely forgotten about Shingo's awards ceremony. As much as she was constantly irritated by his incessant teasing, she was proud of her younger brother and she wanted to support him as much as the rest of her family. It just happened that the ceremony was scheduled at a horribly inconvenient time. She knew her parents would be annoyed at her, maybe even angered, and they would think she didn't care about her brother. She felt awful that she couldn't go. But recovering her friends was a much higher priority for her, and any yelling she may receive from her parents would be worth it if she succeeded.

"I… I won't be able to go," Usagi said softly.

"Why not?" Kenji said with palpable displeasure. "I'm sure whatever you have to do isn't that important that you can't go with us to support your brother."

"She's probably too embarrassed that I'm so much smarter than her," Shingo said smugly.

"It's not that," Usagi said in a dejected voice that was just above a whisper. "As much as he makes me crazy at times, I still love him and I'm very proud of him. I would go if I could, but I can't." That statement resulted in a stunned look from Shingo, who wasn't expecting such a reply.

"So then what's the reason?" Kenji demanded. His dark brown eyes narrowed as he stared intently at Usagi.

She slowly turned a dejected gaze to meet Ami's worried eyes. Ami sensed the internal debate that was raging within Usagi over what to say and how much to reveal to her parents. She felt compelled to respond, to help her friend in some way, but she didn't exactly know what to say to her parents. As such, all she could do was watch the interaction unfold and try to console Usagi afterward if necessary.

"It's… something urgent came up and I won't be able to make it," Usagi replied hesitantly as she glumly stared at the bowl in front of her.

"And what is that?" Kenji asked with a look on his face that was one part confusion and one part incredulity.

"Well… I…" Usagi was struggling to come up with an explanation that would satisfy her father. Luckily her mom, who knew a lot more about Usagi's situation, rescued her.

"Kenji, darling, I think we can let Usagi off the hook for just this one time," Ikuko said resolutely while sending a comforting smile to her daughter. "I think I have a good idea why she won't be there anyway. I can tell you later, if Usagi doesn't mind, or she can tell you herself whenever she feels ready," she said calmly.

"You can tell him, mama," Usagi said softly as tears started to well in her eyes. She didn't mind if her dad knew. In many ways she wished he had learned of her condition earlier. She wished she had built the courage to tell both of them much earlier about her sorrowful circumstances. Nevertheless, she was eminently thankful for her mom's intervention as she would have been even more upset than she was at that time.

Ikuko nodded and leaned closer to Usagi, gazing at her with warm sepia eyes. "Now, don't worry about missing the event. I understand the difficulties you're going through right now, and I'm not going to be mad or disappointed at you," she said with a soothing evenness to her voice. That tranquility disappeared slightly as she looked toward Kenji and Shingo with harder eyes. "I'll make sure that these two understand as well." She looked back at Usagi and resumed her comforting tone. "Now, I'm sure whatever happens this Friday will end up good for you. I also have a feeling that Ami-san will do her best to make sure that happens."

Ami nodded slowly with a nervous smile on her lips when she heard Ikuko say that, although she wondered how Usagi's mom knew of her involvement. The displeased look on Kenji's face disappeared and was replaced by one of unease as he determined that his daughter was enduring something extremely painful. The unease was compounded by his lack of awareness of his child's situation—a situation he would learn later was far worse than he even imagined—for which he mentally kicked himself. Shingo, on the other hand, remained shocked and confused at everything going on around him.

"Thanks so much, mama," Usagi said with relief. Although a few escaped her eyes and slid down her cheeks, she could feel the bulk of her tears slowly subside. The depressed look in her eyes faded, replaced by a gentle shine. Her appetite reappeared as well, which was a good thing as she definitely needed to regain as much energy as she could before Friday.

"Now, I'm sure there are other, happier things to talk about while we eat, right?" Ikuko proposed.

The dining room was quiet for several anxious moments before Ami built up the courage to break the awkward, suffocating silence.

"Tsukino-san," Ami began as she looked at Ikuko with a tiny smile.

"Ami-san, you don't have to be quite so formal. It's not like we're complete strangers. It's okay to call me Ikuko," Usagi's mother said with a warm smile and inviting eyes.

Ami couldn't help but to chuckle slightly. "Okay… Ikuko-san, I'm really enjoying this, um, gumbo—" she said the last word slowly and carefully so it came out correctly— "that you've made. Usagi and I have a friend who's also a really good cook who would just love to know how you made it," she said enthusiastically.

That last sentence made Usagi's ears perk up, especially with the word _friend_. Not to say that she had any doubts that their plan would work, but to hear Ami already refer to the girls as friends at this early stage only helped to buoy her confidence further.

"Well…" Ikuko said with a bright smile on her face as she went on to explain in great detail her recipe to a fascinated audience.

—|1|**2**|—

Usagi laid across her bed and stared at the ceiling with contented blue eyes. She was stuffed from three full bowls of gumbo, which she considered to be the best thing she had eaten in her fourteen years of life. It was a true delicacy for them and she wished she could have it more often, as in every day. However, as her mom had explained all the effort that went into not just cooking everything but also the enormous cost of obtaining all the ingredients, she quickly realized it would be a very rare treat. Her appetite's saving grace was that Ikuko inadvertently had made so much that they would be eating it for a few more days. She felt her mouth beginning to water. Maybe she needed a fourth bowl, perhaps as a midnight snack?

As the blonde dreamed of shrimp and sausage, Ami sat in the rolling chair and cradled her senshi communicator in her hands. Her eyes were narrowed in a look of deep contemplation as she replayed in her mind over and over again the proposed conversation she would have with the other girls. She knew the plan would work, but only as far as the girls bought the idea that she somehow located the "true" princess and that Usagi voluntarily wanted to turn over the Silver Crystal. The success of the plan and the fate of her best friend and princess depended on her and she desperately did not want to disappoint. She thought once more about the impending conversation and shivered. The realization struck her that, as difficult as it would be for her to sound convincing to the other girls, it would be far, far harder on Usagi if she heard the dialogue. She didn't want her dearest friend to have to listen to the inevitable vitriolic comments that the other girls, especially Rei, would make.

"What's wrong, Ami-chan?" Usagi asked in a concerned voice. Clearly, while she was thinking of food, she was also perceptive of her friend's discomfort.

"I was just thinking about what I was going to say to them, and… what they were going to say about you," Ami replied softly in a pensive and apprehensive tone. "I was concerned about having you hear them insult you as badly as I know they're going to do."

"Don't worry, Ami-chan. Sure, it'll be painful for me and I'll be hurt for a little while, but I know I'm going to get them back, and that will keep me strong." Her eyes had a remarkable calmness about them that helped to assuage Ami's concerns.

"So, you're going to stay nearby while I do this?"

"Of course. Like you, I want to know if they took the bait," Usagi said resolutely with the slight hint of a mischievous smile on her lips.

Ami's demeanor lightened when she felt Usagi's confidence, but there was one last issue that had just entered her mind. She was sitting in Usagi's bedroom about to call the girls over the senshi communicator, a small tablet that resembled a small, buttonless cell phone whose front surface consisted of a large screen and a camera. That last item was important as it allowed them to see each other, which was good during most circumstances. The problem was that, if they realized she was in Usagi's house, the entire plan could fall apart before it ever began. It was something she knew she should have taken into account much earlier, but she somehow forgot to think of it.

"Um, one last thing, Usagi-chan. How familiar are the other girls with your bedroom?" she asked anxiously.

"You're the only one who's been in here," Usagi replied calmly. "We've mostly met at Crown or at the shrine, so they haven't had many opportunities to visit."

"That's good," Ami said with a brief smile. "Since they haven't been to my place either, they wouldn't be able to tell the difference… so long as I don't capture that massive pink bed of yours."

"Hey, it's not _my_ fault I like pink!" Usagi replied playfully with a wink.

Ami merely signed in reply. She looked around the bedroom and noticed that everything seemed to give away the fact she was with Usagi. The lone exception was the slightly opened casement window. So she decided to sit in front of the window and have the darkened night sky as her background. As she approached the window to pull it further open she realized it gave the added benefit, if she framed the shot just right, of appearing as if she was outside.

"Okay, Usagi-chan, I'm about to call them now. Are you ready?" Ami asked carefully as she perched herself in front of the window and held the communicator in front of her. She had it set to display the camera output so she knew where to hold it.

"I'm ready. I don't have to really do anything. You're the one who has to convince them. For that I don't envy you one bit. So, I guess the main thing is, are _you_ ready?"

Ami closed her eyes and took a deep breath, holding it for a few seconds before slowly releasing the air from her lungs. She knew she would need the entirety of her strength and acting skills to pull this off. She knew she needed to maintain her composure the entire time no matter what hateful comment was uttered. She knew that, by the end of the conversation, she needed to have the three girls willing to meet with Usagi and not want to kill her upon sight. She knew it was the single most important thing she would have ever done in her life.

"_I can do this. I absolutely know I can do this. I need to, for the sake of my best friend. For the sake of my princess,"_ Ami willed herself within her thoughts. She felt a surge of energy within her body that exponentially grew in intensity the more she meditated. In that time she emitted a faint blue light similar to the radiance Usagi produced whenever she fell into deep spells of concentration.

It was as if a new person took over Ami's body when she finally opened her eyes. She looked at Usagi with eyes that held so much resolve that the blonde shuddered slightly. There was no doubt within either girl as to the outcome of the dialogue.

"I'm ready," Ami said with no hint of nervousness whatsoever in her voice. She retrieved her transformation pen and held it above her head. "Mercury power, make up," she said, though in a calm whisper as opposed to the standard yell. A few moments and a bright flash of pale blue light later, Ami stood in front of the window dressed as Sailor Mercury. A strong, majestic, and utterly self-confident Sailor Mercury. She held the communicator up to the spot she previously determined would give the least-incriminating background for her. The pictures of the other three senshi appeared in a column on the right side of the communicator. All she had to do was tap the screen and all three of them would be called at once. She slowly moved her gloved finger to the screen.

"Usagi, Ami, I'm back!" Luna yelled as she leaped through the window and onto the floor in front of Ami. As she looked up at the senshi, a confused look appeared on Luna's face. "Why are you transformed as Sailor Mercury?"

Ami looked down at Luna with an irritated expression on her face and slightly angry eyes that quickly faded away as she composed herself. _"I guess it's better that it happened now than during the middle of my call,"_ she thought.

"Luna, Ami-chan is about to contact the other girls right now," Usagi said softly and with an almost imperceptible nod. With that nod, Luna understood that Ami was about to set their plan into motion. She slinked to the side of the bed next to Usagi, feeling great embarrassment for interrupting Ami at such a crucial time.

"I'm sorry about that, Ami," Luna said sheepishly.

"Don't worry about it Luna," Ami replied gently, feeling slight regret for her harsh response to the black cat.

Ami then closed her eyes for a few moments and took another deep breath as she regained the utterly confident persona she required for the impending conversation. She opened her eyes, held the communicator up to the preplanned position, and tapped the button. The communicator beeped and, one by one, the girls appeared on the screen. Minako was the first to respond, followed by Rei and Makoto.

"Ami-chan!" the girls said in unison with hints of surprise in their voice as they saw her dressed as Sailor Mercury.

"Hey guys, I have some really important news for you all," Ami said with the best tone of urgency she could produce.

"Ami, guys, I also have some critical information that I just got from Artemis. I was just about to call all of you myself. But I'll let Ami go first since she started the call," Minako said with even greater, far more genuine urgency in her voice.

"Thanks," Ami said calmly. She took a deep breath before continuing. "Everyone, I've been able to locate and contact the princess," she said resolutely.

"That's excellent!" Rei exclaimed with a broad smile on her face.

"I somehow knew you'd be the one to find her," Makoto said in a congratulatory tone while giving her a friendly wink.

"Where is she?" Minako asked in a worried tone. Her narrowed royal blue eyes carried none of the excitement or shine of their jade green or violet counterparts.

"Well, the last time I spoke with her she said she was here in Juuban, but that she was moving around frequently to avoid detection. She did say she desperately wanted to meet with you all, but she only has a small window in which to do so before she has to leave again. Are you all able to make it to the park at six o'clock on Friday evening? That's the time and place she gave me," Ami said with sober calmness.

"I'm sure we'll all be there. We did have that time planned for other things anyway," Minako replied with equal seriousness.

Usagi gulped as silently as possible when she heard that, as she knew exactly what Minako meant by that.

"That's good," Ami said, maintaining her calm. "There's something else—"

"Is she safe? Does she know about Kunzite's plan to kidnap her?" Minako interrupted hastily. The blond girl's terrified eyes widened and her face displayed utmost anguish. The other two girls gasped loudly when they heard Minako's news.

"_What on Earth did Luna tell Artemis?"_ Ami briefly pondered in her mind. _"Whatever it was, it could prove useful."_ Though it was only a fleeting moment she had to work diligently to stop her lips from being pulled into a telling grin.

"I'm not sure if she knows the specifics, but she's aware she's in danger, especially now that she doesn't have the crystal. But that brings me to the other point," Ami said calmly.

"What's that?" Rei said with nervous anticipation.

Ami took a deep breath and readied herself for the impending outburst. "Do you all remember how I told you that I was going to convince Usagi to willingly give up the crystal? Well…"

"What is that dumb bitch going to do now?" Rei yelled with a sudden passionate fury. She was visibly flustered and her face turned bright red upon the mere mention of Usagi's name.

"_Rei-chan!_ Calm down! We don't need this right now!" Minako shouted in exasperation at Rei. Her exclamation roused Usagi once again, if only as it certainly appeared Minako was actually admonishing Rei for her contempt of Usagi. That brought a slight smile upon the face of the silent blonde.

"We wouldn't be in this goddamned mess if it wasn't for that fraud stealing the crystal from her. I'm _so_ going to kill her the next time I see her," Rei said angrily, though not as loudly as before. Usagi's smile faded and she cringed as those words sank in.

"Rei-chan, let Ami-chan finish, _then_ you can rant all you want about Usagi," Makoto said with some annoyance directed at Rei for her outburst, though it was clear she didn't mind speaking negatively about Usagi.

"Yes, let Ami-chan speak," Minako said in a commanding voice that left no doubt who the leader of the senshi was.

Ami took another deep breath. "Anyway, I talked with her earlier today and she agreed to give up the crystal to the princess as soon as she could," she said firmly.

"That's great news, Ami-chan," Minako said with only the slightest hint of excitement in her voice.

"It's good and all, but why the hell would she want to do that all of a sudden?" Rei asked irately.

"I don't really care right now. I'm just glad she came to her senses, especially with Kunzite on the hunt for our princess right now," Makoto interjected animatedly.

"Mako-chan is right. The fact that Usagi decided to relinquish the crystal is the most important thing right now. The sooner the princess can get it the better," Minako said astutely in an even tone.

"Well, that doesn't change much. I'm still going to kill that fucking bitch the next time I see her," Rei muttered.

"Why are you so intent on killing Usagi?" Minako asked indomitably with palpable irritation in her voice.

"Why am I so intent on killing Usagi?" Rei sneered in a mocking fashion. "Apparently she didn't try to _kill_ any of _you_ guys, or else you'd all be feeling the same way!"

Minako sighed. "We all know what happened, and I know you hate her far more than any of us do, but for now you have to put that aside and think about our mission," she said with softer volume as she tried not to escalate Rei's fury any further.

"Weren't we, just yesterday, coming up with a way to kill that stupid, lazy, _useless_ waste of oxygen?" Rei yelled with increasing ferocity. "We _all_ agreed to it, and we only put it off because Ami needs her around for her assignment!"

"Only as a last resort, Rei, _if_ she refused to surrender the Silver Crystal. A _last resort_!" Minako said resolutely, putting special emphasis on the last two words. "And now we don't need to do that because she's giving up the crystal on her own."

"Yeah, but that doesn't stop me from killing her _after_ she gives it up," Rei growled.

"Rei-chan, that's not a good idea," Ami replied with stunning calmness. "Usagi told me she's fully willing to give up the crystal as long as she feels safe doing it. She's likely to not show up if she feels threatened in any way."

"Think about it, Rei-chan. None of us may be all that fond of Usagi right now. I'm certainly not. But she's doing something she clearly doesn't have to do, _and_ she's righting a wrong in the process. That's good on her, and that'll affect how we'll handle her later. But for right now, Rei-chan, don't let _your_ emotions get in the way of this," Minako said bluntly. Makoto nodded in agreement.

"Hmm…," Rei said as she closed her eyes, which had since turned bright red with rage, and slipped into deep deliberation for a moment. "Shit… alright. Okay. For the sake of our princess, I _guess_ I can let her off the hook this _one_ time," she said angrily as she resigned herself to the fact that Minako was absolutely correct.

"Anyway, that's pretty much all I have to say right now," Ami said flatly. Her tone switched to one of urgency as she strived to finish the call while things were going far better than she expected. "I have to go really soon, but Minako-chan, you said you had some important news as well?"

"Yes, I do. I'll let you go now Ami-chan, and the four of us can talk about this in more detail tomorrow," Minako said cautiously. "In the meanwhile, watch out for any youmas. When you fight them they pretend to die and instead take your powers and use them against innocent people. That's what I heard from Artemis, who heard it from Luna, who apparently was out surveying the city when she saw this happen."

"I'll be careful. I promise," Ami said softly.

"Good. I'll catch you later," Minako said as she gave a quick, friendly wave.

"Bye, guys," Ami said, then tapped on the screen to disconnect the call. She then collapsed to her knees as she sighed heavily. She was glad the call was over and absolutely ecstatic that she was successful. However, she needed a few moments to regain the energy spent to retain her composure, especially after Rei's vitriolic comments.

"That wasn't so bad… except for Rei…" Usagi said at first cheerfully and with a bright smile on her lips, but then more hesitantly when she thought about Rei's insistent desire to kill her. It was similar to the rollercoaster ride of emotions she felt as she listened in on the four-way conversation. She was uplifted by Minako's reprimand of Rei's callousness toward her, yet was downcast when she found out that even then, they still did not like her at all. But then Minako's last point, before she warned Ami of the danger of which they already knew, lightened her mood once again. She reasoned that two of the three girls were amenable to working with her again even at this stage. Rei would need some more work, obviously. But all of that was in the future. For the moment, the important point was that the girls bought the story almost without question.

"It seemed like they were all convinced that I'm giving up the crystal to the princess," Usagi said eagerly.

"Yeah, that actually caught me off guard a bit. I was expecting them to be far more critical of my story and far harsher upon my mention of you, Usagi-chan," Ami said between heavy breaths. She turned to look at Luna, who was lying next to Usagi on the bed. "What in the _world_ did you tell Artemis?"

Luna pulled her lips into a wry grin. "I just told them what I felt would make this whole process go a little bit easier," she said smugly. "I figured that Minako, as the leader of the senshi after all, would be far more concerned if I maximized the sense of danger for their '_princess_.'"

"Well, thanks Luna, I guess," Ami said sheepishly. She suddenly straightened herself and produced a more confident tone. "But, still, Kunzite is looking for Sailor Moon, not the princess, and _we_ were the ones to find out that the youmas were fake, not you."

"True, but Sailor Moon _is_ the princess, and we've already established that the Dark Kingdom may know that even if the other senshi don't," Luna replied curtly.

"Yeah, which I why I desperately want for them to know as soon as possible that I am the princess, and we can all be united when we fight against Kunzite," Usagi said wistfully.

"That day will come, Usagi-chan," Ami said as she turned a gentle smile to the blonde.

"Thinking of the fight with Kunzite and eventually against Queen Beryl, I have a feeling that the battles will be far more difficult than the girls currently will be able to handle. I think it will be a good idea to train the other girls in the same way I trained you, Usagi," Luna said pensively.

Usagi's cheeks blushed slightly and a broad smile crept onto her lips. "You're talking about taking them to the special training room, right?" she asked impishly.

An equally wide smile appeared on Luna's face. "That's exactly what I mean."

Usagi's eyes widened and a mischievous glint shone within them. She raised her hands to her mouth to unsuccessfully muffle a devious chuckle. She knew she wasn't supposed to think such thoughts, but she couldn't help it. Visions of the girls struggling far worse than she ever did as they attempted to complete Luna's brutal training program brought an evil sense of satisfaction to her. They wouldn't have the same motivation as she had when she started training, as none of them were fighting to regain their friends. And she desperately wanted to recover her precious friends. But she felt a guilty pleasure in seeing them try time after time again to take on the various youmas she fought in that room, never mind tackle the five hills. Yes, the massive, rock-strewn hills with the heavy glass balls resting atop them. She wondered how they would ever manage to bring those fragile balls down without breaking them _and_ do so within the insanely short time limit. At least _she_ had a tiara she could actually use; their tiaras were useless. She sensed Rei would likely be the most frustrated in that exercise and would try to, in a bout of fury, set fire to the course. That mental image caused Usagi to snicker even louder.

"What's a 'special training room'?" Ami asked with confusion clouding her slightly narrowed eyes.

"It's a completely secret room located within Crown where we can create any sort of scenario we want for training, including youma battles," Luna said warmly. "That's where Usagi had been training for the past several days and where she discovered her true fighting ability," she said more boastfully as she glanced up at the giggling blonde.

"I see…" Ami uttered softly as she nodded slowly. She gently gazed upon Usagi in admiration.

"So, since we're going to be busy this Friday, obviously, I say we start training Saturday. How does the early afternoon sound?" Luna asked.

"That sounds great, Luna!" Ami exclaimed.

"I agree. Besides, I haven't seen or talked with Motoki-kun in a long time. While you guys are catching up I can enjoy a nice chocolate milkshake," Usagi said teasingly.

"Don't think you're not going to be training along with us. I figure you're only about halfway to your ultimate ability. I don't want to waste a single moment, especially now that you'll be fighting Kunzite," Luna said with a smirk.

"What!" Usagi exclaimed with her eyes widening in shock. "But I've already done the hills and the lower-level youmas. How can I train with them if they're just starting?"

Luna's smirk grew even larger. "You do remember that the room is infinitely large in all directions, right? So why can't I have the girls run the hill stage in one section while you fight some youmas in another?"

"Mou…" Usagi said dejectedly. However, that downcast emotion rapidly disappeared and was replaced by fervent resolve and unforeseen competitiveness. _"Luna's right. I can't slack off now, especially if I have to fight against Kunzite. I need to be as strong as I can possibly be, for them as well as for myself. Also, I don't want any of them catching up to me and passing me in fighting skill. That would be _far_ more embarrassing than any time I've ever tripped and fallen,"_ she reasoned. She pushed herself up from her bed and looked at Luna and Ami with narrowed, focused eyes that demonstrated her enormous tenacity.

"You're right, Luna. I should train alongside my fellow senshi. Besides, I do want one more attempt at Malanche," she said firmly.

"Wait… Usagi? Malanche? _Really?_" Luna uttered as her smug appearance suddenly was replaced by massive apprehension. She shuddered at the thought of what happened the last time she went against Malanche. She almost lost Usagi once and she didn't want to risk losing her again.

"Who's Malanche?" Ami asked.

"She's a being that attacked the Earth and the Silver Millennium long ago, during the reign of the third Queen Selenity. I'll go over the full history of the solar system kingdoms some other time. Suffice it to say, Malanche was one of the most powerful enemies the Silver Millennium had ever encountered. She's as powerful, if not more so, than Queen Metalia," Luna said softly, nervously.

"And you had Usagi fight against her in her _training_?" Ami asked incredulously, her eyes widening greatly due to shock.

"I tried to turn her power down to something far more manageable, but somehow there was an error and Usagi ended up fighting Malanche at her full strength," Luna said sorrowfully. "She almost died… twice. Once at Malanche's hand, and again when she tried to seal Malanche with the Silver Crystal."

"I see…" Ami said as she absorbed what Luna was saying. Her eyes widened even further in horror when she realized the implication of Luna's last statement. "_Wait!_ So, Usagi tried to use the Silver Crystal… You're saying Usagi will _die_ if she uses the Silver Crystal?" Ami asked emphatically with dismay.

A despondent Luna slowly nodded. "Yes, if Usagi, as Princess Serenity, ever used the Silver Crystal at the power needed to seal away enemies, she'll most likely die," she said in a barely audible voice. Ami hung her head as her vision started to become blurred by tears.

Usagi sensed the immense depression that was filling her bedroom. She understood Luna's concern that she might feel the need to use the Silver Crystal in a future battle against Beryl or Queen Metalia. Similarly, she knew that Ami was deathly afraid of losing the friend she just recouped. However, she wasn't going to succumb to the sadness or the fear. Her belief was that, with all of them together, they could find a way to defeat Beryl and Metalia without resorting to use of the Silver Crystal. To her, the biggest threat didn't arise from the Dark Kingdom. It came from their disunity.

She stood and slowly walked next to Ami, gently placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I will be alright. I promise," she whispered as she gazed into her friend's face with soothing eyes and a warm smile. "If we are all together, then everything will be okay."

"But, if you have to use the Silver Crystal…" Ami started in a timid whisper, still unable to shake the thought of her best friend's death.

"I don't think I will have to do that. I'm sure we can find a way to win that doesn't involve that," Usagi said softly and with incredible tenderness.

Ami immediately felt her tears begin to dry as she heard Usagi's soothing, melodious voice. Her fears dissipated and her strength and resolve returned with full force. If Usagi, her princess, believed they could win and do so without personal sacrifice, then the least she could do was share the belief.

"I believe you, Usagi-chan," Ami said more forcefully while giving a genuine smile. Usagi moved her one hand from Ami's shoulder to her back. That hand soon was joined by her other hand as she enveloped Ami in a tight hug. Ami wrapped her arms around Usagi to return the warm embrace. They held each other for several seconds before slowly releasing the hug.

"So… what shall we do now?" Usagi asked softly.

"Well, we do have to practice our dialogue so that it'll be perfect," Ami replied with a mischievous smile. "I guess we can do that… _eeeeep!_" That shriek came as Ami looked at the alarm clock and noticed the time. Somehow she had lost track and had just noticed it was almost 10 PM. She needed to return home, and _soon_.

"What's wrong, Ami-chan?" Usagi said in shock as she was startled by Ami's sudden yelp.

"Nothing, nothing," Ami said in a calmer voice than before but still highly anxious. "I just realized how late it was. I need to get home so I can see my mom for a little while before I have to go to sleep and she has to leave for work."

"I fully understand. You don't get to see her much, do you?" Usagi asked gently.

"Unfortunately not," Ami replied with a hint of sadness. She turned her eyes to the floor.

"Well then, I shouldn't take up too much more of your time. You should spend as much time with your mother as you possibly can," Usagi said kindly. A small yet fully heartfelt and sympathetic smile graced her lips. Ami responded with a swift nod of understanding and quickly grasped her shoulder bag. She was reaching for the handle to open the bedroom door when she was interrupted by Usagi.

"Forgetting something, Ami-chan—or rather, _Dame Mercury_?" Usagi playfully asked with a wink as she pointed toward Ami.

Ami looked down at herself and let out an annoyed and embarrassed sigh. How could she, of all people, forget something so simple and straightforward? She dropped her hand from the door and stood motionless as she undid her transformation. A bright flash of pale blue light later and Ami saw herself standing in the bedroom wearing the navy-blue skirt and long-sleeved white blouse her school uniform.

"Thanks, Usagi-chan," Ami said with a grateful smile.

Usagi shook her head. Her eyes shone as brightly as ever before and her smile was far more resplendent than Ami's. "No, Ami-chan. Thank _you_, for everything," she said lovingly.

Ami's cheeks turned bright red as she turned around to open the bedroom door. She turned to walk through the door, followed closely by Usagi. The pair slowly walked down the steps and approached the front door. Ikuko, who was relaxing in the living room after cleaning up from dinner, noticed Ami as she was about to leave.

"Ami-san, are you about to leave?" Ikuko asked as stood up from the sofa and approached the two girls. She turned a soft smile to Ami.

"Yes. I have to go home soon so I can see my mom before she goes to work," Ami replied slowly.

"She's a doctor at the nearby hospital, right?" Ikuko asked, receiving a nod in reply. "That's good. She does something that's so special and so important for all of us," she said cheerfully.

"I just wish we had more time to see each other," Ami said sadly in reply.

"Well, that is one of the unfortunate things about her job," Ikuko said in a comforting tone. "Maybe in the future you two will be able to spend more time together. But right now you should definitely cherish whatever time you do have manage to have with each other."

"I absolutely do," Ami said softly. Her eyes lit up brightly as she thought about her mother.

"I'm very happy for that," Ikuko said. "Anyway, I know you have to get going now, so thank you for staying for dinner, and thank you for helping my daughter," she said with a joyful smile.

Ami nodded enthusiastically. "Thanks for having me, and for preparing such a wonderful dinner," she said cheerfully with a beaming smile. She then turned to Usagi and gave her a friendly wave. "Goodnight! I'll see you tomorrow in class."

"See you then!" Usagi exclaimed as she vigorously returned the smile and wave.

Ami opened the door and walked from the comfortably warm interior of Usagi's house into the cool, moist air. Several steps from the house, she suddenly stopped. She gazed into the dark canvas of the night sky, punctuated by the tiny sparkles of hundreds of stars and the magnificent silver shine emanating from the moon. She immediately thought of Usagi. Her best friend was only days away from having her friends back and having a sense of normalcy be restored. It would be the best day of her life. It would be the best day of all of their lives. A feeling of immense hope washed over her, and she smiled. "Usagi-chan, just wait two more days and it'll all be over," she thought pleasantly.

She pulled her eyes from the moon and started sprinting for home. Her mother was waiting for her.


	17. Mariko Hasegawa

**Chapter 17: Mariko Hasegawa, Photographer Extraordinaire**

A warm golden light flooded Usagi's face as she peered through her bedroom window onto the garden below. The flowers appeared especially lush and bright that morning. It might have been reflections from the droplets of dew than hung from the petals and leaves that made them look so dazzling, but the way Usagi felt that morning, a dull block of coal would have been equally beautiful. The whole world was beautiful. The whole universe was beautiful, even. For Usagi had regained one of her friends, and knew that in only one more day she'd have the other three. Her life would return to the way it was, the way it always should have been.

Okay, her life would be _exactly_ the way it was before that horrible night. She wouldn't have Mamoru for instance, but as she reflected upon that, it didn't seem to be a negative. Moreover, she was far more mature and less of a klutz or an airhead than she was not even ten days ago, and she discovered she loved that. She breathed a contented sigh, leaving a small foggy circle on the window near her mouth. Maybe she always was like that, she pondered, and she just didn't know it. Or she didn't know how to express it. Sure, she also loved her previous energetic, carefree life, one that thought nothing of work or responsibilities. But look where that led her. She found that she could be just as blithe while also getting to school on time, doing her homework, and getting good grades. The two were not mutually exclusive, and ultimately both made her a better person, she concluded.

Her eyes radiated with new energy as she turned them from the window toward her alarm clock. It showed that it was 7:15, which gave her plenty of time to eat breakfast and walk—not run—to school. That was the other advantage of her new life. No more rushing to class, fearful of being late and attracting Haruna's venomous wrath. That, or detention, which might have well been the same thing depending on what nefarious punishment her homeroom teacher had planned. It was true she accepted detention when she yelled at Ami, but it was a small price to pay to ultimately regain the genius-girl's friendship.

Speaking of Ami, she and Usagi had almost completed their group assignment over the course of that night. Granted, the blue-haired girl did do most of the early work, but over the course of the evening they ultimately used, in some fashion, every one of Usagi's suggestions. Yes, _every single one_, a far cry from Ami's earlier insinuation that she only "maybe" would bother listening to her. Far from being useless, Usagi was pulling her fair share of the weight, and she was certain they were going to get glowing marks as a result. That was nothing special for Ami, who always received exceptional grades in all her classes, but for Usagi, it would be a first. She pulled her lips into a wide, bright smile that went from ear to ear, and thought about what she would do to celebrate her impending first "A" that wasn't in art class. All they had to do was practice the dialogue they had written to make sure they delivered it perfectly.

The sweet smell of Belgian waffles tickled the blonde's nose, and her mouth started to water in response. This was one part of her former life that she was more than willing to maintain. What was the point of life if there's nothing good to eat, after all? She bolted down the stairs and skipped straight into the kitchen. There she found her mother waiting for her.

"Good morning, dear!" Ikuko said with a bright smile on her face.

Usagi ran and immediately wrapped her arms around her mom in a tight hug. She looked up into her mother's dazzling eyes with rosy cheeks and glistening eyes of her own.

"Morning, mama!" she yelled cheerfully.

"My, my, you're all bright and cheerful this morning," Ikuko said teasingly.

"It's just that everything is going so much better for me now." She gave an enormous, toothy smile.

"I'm very happy for you," Ikuko said gently. A soft beep echoed about the kitchen. Another waffle was cooked and ready to be placed in the stack of waffles she knew her daughter would readily consume. "So, you and Ami are going to have a busy evening tomorrow I imagine?" she said in a more familiar tone as she set the waffle on a plate.

"Yeah…" Usagi replied. She narrowed her eyes slightly and scrunched her nose as a perplexed look appeared on her face. "By the way, how did you know that Ami was involved?"

"Motherly intuition, I suppose," Ikuko said with a wry smile. It faded as she collected herself. "It does make sense, though, that she is helping you get your friends back. The five of you need each other more than you possibly believe."

Usagi froze when she heard the last sentence her mom spoke. _"Does she know? I _want_ to tell her, but I haven't yet, so she couldn't know… right? And how would she know about all of us and our other identities?"_ she thought.

"Usagi?" Ikuko asked with concern as she noticed her daughter standing there with a blank look on her face.

Usagi shook her head slowly. "I was just thinking about how things would be once I got all my friends back," she said pensively. Her lips were pulled into a warm smile. "You are absolutely right, mama. We really do need each other, and I hope we can be together again as friends soon."

Ikuko nodded as she returned an equally warm smile. "Don't worry dear. It will happen, I know it. I believe in the two of you," she said tenderly. A small giggle escaped her lips as she turned to the stack of waffles on the plate beside her. "Now, how many do you want?" she asked with a playful wink?

Usagi devoured her waffles after dousing them in butter and drowning them in maple syrup. To her, that morning, it was the most delicious thing she had ever eaten in her life, short of last night's gumbo. It was probably the reason she had _three_ of them, and finished them in record time. After finishing breakfast, she hugged her mom one last time before walking out the front door.

The morning was even more beautiful when she stepped outside than it appeared through her window. The sky presented a rich light-blue canvas against which was drawn a bright golden sun that gave orange and pink glows to otherwise feathery white clouds. She looked down into one of the many puddles left in the street from the early morning rain shower and saw the same vivid azure panorama. Everything seemed to glisten as she walked, whether it was the dew-covered bushes, the moistened leaves of trees lining the street, or the houses reflecting the sunlight off their windows. It almost appeared as if she were walking through a perfect dreamscape. The temperature was only slightly cooler than usual but otherwise perfect for the outdoors stroll. A slight breeze blew from the south, ruffling her skirt and causing her blond bangs to flitter about her face, slightly obscuring her sparkling sapphire blue eyes. She shivered ever so slightly as the cool air tickled her exposed arms. She stopped along a bridge to look over the shimmering clear water that flowed down a small stream.

"Oh, so gorgeous!" said a light, melodious female voice.

"What's that?" Usagi asked in confusion. She looked around to see where that strange female voice came from. She soon found what she was looking for walking up to her from the other side of the bridge.

"I'm talking about you, of course," the mysterious woman said as she sauntered next to Usagi. Silky brown, slightly wavy hair fell around her round face and down to the middle of her back. Thick eyelashes bracketed her chocolate-brown eyes and flushed cheeks. She was very tall—at least a foot taller than Usagi—and thin, but had a curvy, toned figure and full bust that was accentuated by her sleeveless ruby top and tight-fitting, dark-blue jeans. Her luscious, full red lips were pulled into a wide smile.

"What? Who are you?" Usagi asked, the slightly lowered pitch of her voice and narrowed eyes revealing her suspicion of the strange lady.

"Oh, sorry. If you'll excuse me for not properly introducing myself, my name is Mariko Hasegawa. I'm a photographer—" she said pointing at the expensive-looking camera that hung from her neck— "and I just found the perfect subject for my next photo book! I'm so thrilled!" She was practically bouncing up and down as she bowed before Usagi, who bowed in response, one of her long pigtails falling over her shoulder.

"Oh my goodness, you're so cute!" Mariko said in a high-pitched, almost squeal of a voice, her smile becoming even wider if that was even possible. Usagi began to feel nervous, an imperceptibly small drop of sweat falling from her head. "Do you mind if I took a picture of you?"

"Um… I guess so," Usagi mumbled.

Mariko held the camera up to her face and snapped a few quick photos as Usagi stood at the bridge, looking more anxious than pleased at the attention she suddenly was receiving. Mariko then turned the camera around to show the girl the small screen displaying previews of the pictures she just took. Usagi looked at the screen and was impressed at how beautiful she actually appeared in the impromptu photos. If the photos turned out this well when all she did was stand around on a bridge in her school uniform, then maybe this Mariko person had good point. Maybe she was worthy of being a model after all. She smiled to herself.

"Do you like them?" Mariko asked with her eyes locked onto Usagi's, her eyelashes fluttering.

"I love them! You're such a good photographer."

"Oh, I don't know. I think it depends as much on what's in front of the lens as who's behind it." She giggled with a melodious high-pitched voice as she winked at the blonde. Usagi began to chuckle as well, and her anxiousness slowly dissipated from her body. It was possible this woman wasn't so bad after all.

"So, would you mind being one of my subjects?"

"Definitely! I'd have to speak with my parents first, but I'm sure they'd be okay with it," Usagi replied with a beaming smile on her face.

"Fabulous!" Mariko said in a joyful shriek. She grabbed Usagi in a tight hug and started bouncing up and down. "I'm so, so, happy!"

"I'm happy for you but… could you please let me go. I do have to go to school after all," Usagi said in a whine that was muffled as her head was stuffed in Mariko's chest.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Mariko exclaimed as she released the girl. She pulled a small wallet out of her back pocket and produced a small white card that she offered with a bow. Usagi graciously accepted the card.

"Here's my card. It has all my information, the address of my studio, and the website where you can find my portfolio," Mariko said cheerfully. "I know you have to go to school now, but could you make it later today for a test shoot?"

"Well…" Usagi said hesitantly.

"Please? It'll be short, probably an hour max," Mariko said with pleading, puppy dog-like eyes.

"I'm awfully busy this afternoon, but… I'll see what I can do," Usagi replied with a small smile. She really, _really_ wanted to go, but she also needed to practice her dialogue with Ami.

"Excellent! If you decide you can make it, please just call me… um…" A small scowl appeared on Mariko's face as she suddenly realized she didn't ask for Usagi's name. She gestured at the blonde to prompt her to deliver the missing information.

"Usagi Tsukino," she replied with a slight chuckle.

The brunette smiled vividly. "Usagi! What a beautiful name for such a beautiful girl! I hope you have a wonderful day at school and that I get to see you again this evening!"

Usagi nodded and waved before turning away and walking to school with an extra bounce in her step. Mariko's eyes were locked onto the figure of the departing girl. A heavy depression filled her body as the girl shrank further and further into the distance and she didn't notice the other figure slowly approaching her from behind.

"Yes, you will certainly see her again," a mysterious sharply-dressed, silver-haired man said with a silky-smooth baritone as he stepped next to the woman. He tenderly stroked her back with one hand. She wrapped her toned arms around the tall, muscular man's waist and pressed her body into his firm chest. Her chocolate eyes locked onto his misty blue orbs as she gave him a look of absolute adoration.

"My dear…" Mariko said softly with a small pout.

"Shhhh…" he whispered into her ear, gently pressing a finger to her lips.

"She's just so perfect… so perfect…" she whispered sadly, a tear falling from her eye and streaking down her plump, blushed cheek.

"I know, my beautiful Mariko, I know… You did well," he said while delicately dabbing the tear from her cheek with a handkerchief. He bent down and laid a gentle kiss on her forehead. "Now, come on my darling, let's go." He wrapped an arm around her waist and led her across the bridge.

"_She's more perfect than you'll ever imagine,"_ he thought, a smirk gracing his lips, as he glanced one last time over his shoulder at the skipping blonde.

—|1|**2**|3|—

Usagi walked into her homeroom class with ten minutes to spare, her eyes positively glowing. It was probably the happiest she ever had been at school, which was saying something given that she only recently began to enjoy attending school. She was so ecstatic she may well have been walking on air. She spied Ami out of the corner of her eye as she walked into the room. The blue-haired girl was already at her desk reading some textbooks to prepare for her other classes. Usagi dropped her bag into her seat and immediately darted to Ami's seat.

"Hey Ami-chan!" she shouted as she grabbed Ami's desk to stop her momentum. Her lips were tugged into a gleaming smile.

"Hi, Usagi-chan." She spoke more quietly, but had an equally large smile on her face as she looked at the cheerful girl with glistening eyes.

"Guess what? Guess what?" Usagi shrieked as she grabbed Ami's arms and almost lifted her from her desk. She inhaled a gargantuan breath of air before shouting, "_I'm going to be a model!_"

"What?" Ami asked with one part excitement, the other part incredulity. "A _model_? When did _this_ happen?"

"Just this morning! I ran into a photographer as I was walking here, and she was just smitten with me, saying I was gorgeous!" Usagi yelled. Her resplendent eyes were wide with exhilaration.

"Um… Usagi-chan… Are you sure _that's_ what she meant?" Ami asked nervously.

"Huh? Ahhh…! I-It's not l-like that!" Usagi shouted with embarrassment, her cheeks flushing bright red as she realized just what Ami was insinuating. She let go of the girl's arms and looked up at the ceiling, a hand nervously placed behind her head. "A-anyway, s-she said I was the perfect subject for a photo book she's making. She has a test shoot this afternoon and she wants me to come by."

"But we have to practice our dialogue for the presentation tomorrow," Ami said insistently.

"She said it wouldn't take very long, maybe an hour or so."

"And who is this photographer?" Her suspicion was palpable.

"Um…" Usagi reached into her bag and pulled out the business card. "Her name is Mariko Hasegawa. She seems to be really good," she said as she handed the card to Ami.

"Mariko… Hasegawa… I've never heard of the person before. Let me ask my dad if he's heard of her," Ami said softly. Her father was an artist and it was possible he would know her, or at least know someone else who knew her. It was a tight-knit community after all.

"Ami-chan, it should be okay. It's just a photo shoot after all," Usagi said reassuringly. Ami reached up and gently grabbed her princess's arm to pull her closer to her desk so that other students couldn't overhear their conversation.

"Maybe, but we cannot be too careful. Nobody knows what Kunzite has planned. We already know he's specifically targeting you," Ami whispered, the sincerity of her concern for Usagi evident in her tone.

"I don't see anything suspicious about her—" Usagi said quietly.

"You never know," Ami interrupted pointedly. She stared into Usagi's eyes and could sense a tiny amount of frustration was starting to build up in the young blonde.

"Well, you could always come with me, just in case anything were to happen. Besides," Usagi said with a playful smile, sticking her tongue out at Ami, "it's not like you're all that bad-looking yourself. She'll probably be as gaga over you as she was when she saw me."

Ami blushed furiously for a brief moment and turned away. "You know I'm not interested in such things," she said shyly. She regained her composure and looked down at the business card that sat on her desk. "Hmm… Her studio is not that far away from the library, so if anything were to happen I'll be there in five minutes, tops. So…"

"So I'll be fine. Don't worry, Ami-chan," Usagi said confidently, finishing Ami's last sentence.

"I still want to check this person out though, just to be sure," Ami said. She pulled her cell phone out of her bag and snapped a picture of the business card before handing it to Usagi.

At that time, Haruna walked through the classroom door, her attendance book in hand and a scowl on her face. The scowl was immediately obvious to everyone as soon as she stepped through the door. Everyone knew she was going to be stricter to them and that detentions were going to be handed out for even the smallest transgressions. Not to say that she wasn't already a stern teacher, but it looked as if something bothered her more than usual. In other words, it was not a day to get on Haruna's bad side. Usagi, along with all the other students who were up and about, rushed back to their desks in double-time to avoid trouble. She shot a quick glance back at Ami and mouthed "_we'll talk later during lunch"_ before turning to face the front desk.

—|1|2|**3**|—

Usagi joined Ami once again for lunch although this time they settled for a spot beneath a large tree on the other side of the building instead of the rooftop. It was on the other side of the school grounds from where the other girls typically sat to enjoy lunch.

"Usagi-chan, I sent an email to my dad asking about Mariko," Ami said while carefully spreading her lunch about the blue sheet upon which they sat.

"Yes…?" Usagi replied in a garbled voice as her mouth was full from a bite of her sandwich. Ami merely sighed as she witnessed her princess's inelegant method of eating and continued to speak.

"He replied a short while ago and said that she is actually a pretty well-known nature photographer with many photo books out and all. However, she's rarely if ever photographed people before."

"Well, there's always a first for everything," Usagi said jovially, sending a smile toward Ami. She stared into the sky for a few seconds before suddenly waving her arms in the air as if she just had a moment of inspiration. "You know, this really could be my moment of discovery. Imagine if my photo book sells thousands—no, hundreds of thousands, if not millions! I'll become famous! Then the world would realize my other talents, and I'd become an idol, or even a super-idol!" She was all but jumping up and down and shouting by that point. The shine in her wide eyes was immense. Ami closed her eyes and sighed again, glad that they were far from the other students eating lunch outside. But in reality, she was thrilled to experience the jubilant Usagi once again, despite her sometimes crazy antics.

"I think you're just daydreaming now, Usagi-chan," Ami said with a wry grin and a wink.

"Mou… you have a good way of dampening my hopes and dreams at times," Usagi said while placing her hands on her hips and pouting at the water senshi.

Ami chuckled. "Only when they're completely and hopelessly unrealistic," she retorted. Usagi picked up a handful of grapes and tossed it at Ami, who effortlessly dodged the flying fruit.

"Anyway, back to Mariko," Ami said, her tone becoming more serious again. "So she is a real photographer and all, but she doesn't do human subjects. So why start all of a sudden, and with you no less?"

"I don't know…" Usagi said pensively.

"You know, it may be a good idea to actually attend after all, just to see if this is some sort of plot by the Dark Kingdom. If it isn't, then you just may become famous after all," Ami said with a broad grin directed at Usagi. The smile soon disappeared and her tone became solemn once again. "However, if there is any danger, call me immediately and I'll be there to help in any way I can."

"Right, and I'll bring Luna along too, just in case," Usagi said while munching on one of the grapes she didn't launch at Ami. "That way she'll be able to detect if there's anything strange going on."

"Crap!" Ami suddenly exclaimed. She stood up so abruptly it startled Usagi, causing her to reflexively jump. The blue-haired girl's eyes were staring at something off in the distance.

"What?" Usagi asked confusedly, swiftly looking around to see just what was bothering Ami so much, but she didn't find anything other than a few students who were also enjoying their lunches.

"I promised Minako I'd look over her report one last time before she turned it in," Ami said anxiously. A downcast expression appeared on her face as she looked down at the still-sitting Usagi. "I'm so sorry, Usagi-chan! I completely forgot. I so don't want to abandon you, but I—"

Usagi slowly stood and gently placed her hand on Ami's shoulder. She could feel the girl trembling ever so slightly. She calmly gazed into Ami's teary eyes and delivered a small but warm smile.

"It's okay, Ami-chan. I don't think you're abandoning me," Usagi said softly. "Now, hurry up and go so you don't get in trouble with them."

Ami nodded, wiping a tear away with the back of her hand, and smiled at Usagi. The remaining tears made her eyes glisten quite brightly, but those tears were not of dejection. Not anymore, at least. She bent over and picked up the remnants of her lunch, placing it back into a small box and neatly wrapping it within a light-blue cloth. She gave Usagi a friendly wave and a gentle smile before running off to find Minako and the other girls.


	18. The Test Shoot

**Chapter 18**: **The Test Shoot**

Usagi looked down suspiciously at the business card and then up at the maroon-colored brick building standing before her. It wasn't a particularly imposing building at just two stories, but did it have to be? Mariko was a photographer after all, and not one who commonly photographed people, so she probably didn't think about housing her studio within a larger building. The pigtailed blonde pressed her face against one of the windows and cupped her hands around her eyes in an attempt to peer into the building's interior. The windows had a gray tint to them which made it difficult to see inside, but she could barely make out what appeared to be a sofa immediately on the other side of the window and the back of a person's—who she guessed to be a girl—head. Behind that she saw some dim yellow light, punctuated by the occasional bright flash of white light. That was the extent of what she could see through the window. In her attempt to discreetly peek through the glass she unknowingly attracted the attention of almost everyone inside the studio. She heard the groan of a door opening and the loud clicks of heels against pavement to her left.

"Um, excuse me. Why are you pressed up against the window like that?" an older woman asked exasperatedly.

Usagi flinched and backed away from the window, swiftly turning to see who it was that intercepted her with anxious eyes.

"You do know the window is tinted for a reason, right?" the woman continued, her low-pitched, harsh voice hardly concealing her annoyance. "You were making quite the spectacle of yourself."

Usagi's cheeks turned a bright red as she bowed deeply before the much older woman standing before her. "I'm so sorry for interrupting you guys. I was just trying to make sure I was at the right place," she said nervously, her voice cracking slightly.

"And which place is that supposed to be?"

Usagi grabbed the business card from her shoulder bag and showed it to a raven-haired lady with dark-brown eyes concealed by narrow, maroon-rimmed glasses who appeared to be as old as her mother, if not slightly older. She wore a very business-like violet skirt and jacket and displayed an irritated scowl on her face.

"This is Mariko Hasegawa's studio, right?" Usagi asked.

"Yes, this is her studio." The woman's scowl only seemed to become deeper and more frightening. "Now, why are you here? Hopefully you didn't come just to annoy Mariko and all the models."

Usagi gulped. The woman seemed to be just as harsh as Haruna. She was glad the lady couldn't sentence her to detention. That was, unless she knew her English teacher, in which case she might be in for some trouble when she showed up for school the next day.

"Ummm… no…," she said apprehensively, her brow starting to sweat almost reflexively. The unknown woman's intense stare was not helping matters. She closed her eyes and sighed deeply in an attempt to calm her nerves and soon found enough composure to tell the woman why she was there. "Mariko invited me to come to a test shoot today. I ran into her on the way to school this morning," she said hesitantly.

The scowl inexplicably disappeared from the woman's face as she closely examined Usagi's tense form. The girl just stood there, unsure of what the woman was looking for but wanting to make sure she didn't do anything to aggravate her any further than she had already done. However, the longer the woman gazed over Usagi, the less annoyed and the more intrigued she seemed.

"What is your name?" the woman asked, her voice far less harsh than before.

"Usagi Tsukino."

The woman's face lit up and her eyes widened as soon as she heard the name. "Ah, Usagi! Of course!" the woman said as she realized who it was she was castigating only moments before. Her face became more gentle and her brown eyes much brighter. "I apologize for my previous behavior. My name is Azusa Yamasaki. Please follow me. Mariko is expecting you," she said in a friendly, harmonious tone.

Usagi walked through the door that Azusa held open and immediately was amazed at what appeared before her eyes. The building, although small, was fashioned into quite a sophisticated studio. Lights hung from the walls in the back portion of the studio while large circular reflectors stood next to a tall white panel that served as a backdrop. A blond girl wearing a Juuban High School uniform stood in front of the panel and gave a beaming smile to a tall brunette woman holding an expensive-looking camera. A few other people stood around the pair while holding reflectors and other photographic equipment. Closer to the front of the studio she could see other girls who apparently were waiting to be photographed. There were maybe twenty girls there, ranging in age from junior high school student—much like Usagi—to collegian. Some seemed to be confident, others nervous, but all of them she thought to be very, _very_ beautiful. As Azusa led her to a desk near the front of the building she began to think that she didn't belong in such company.

"You know, Tsukino-san, Mariko has been spending pretty much all day talking about you," Azusa said quietly, as if to make sure the other girls couldn't accidentally overhear her words. "She's been saying how beautiful you were and that you were, just, the absolute perfect model. I told her that there's no way that could be true, that she's just exaggerating. She has a habit of doing that, you know. Anyway, now that I see you, I think she may have a point." She finished the sentence with a warm smile.

Usagi's cheeks were flushed and her eyes glistened as she smiled back at Azusa. With all of those awfully pretty girls there, Mariko thought Usagi was the best, and Azusa seemed to agree. She felt a fluttering sensation inside her stomach. _"Wow, maybe this is the start of a wonderful modeling career after all,"_ she thought. However, she shook herself out of the trance as she remembered why she was here. It wasn't to have her picture taken with the hope of becoming a model. Well… it wasn't _just_ that, really, but to investigate the place and see if the Dark Kingdom, Kunzite in particular, was using this as part of a nefarious plan to attack her. But, if this was part of the plan, it was a very strange plan. She could feel no negative energy, and Luna wasn't freaking out inside her shoulder bag either.

"Tsukino-san, here's some information for you and a release form for your parents to sign should they allow you to pursue this further," Azusa said while handing the girl an envelope full of papers.

"Thanks. And you can call me Usagi, by the way," she said with a bright smile. She looked at Azusa as she shuffled some papers at the desk. "So, Yamasaki-san, are you Hasegawa-san's assistant or something?" Azusa appeared to be older than Mariko, so she thought it was strange that the older woman would be her secretary or assistant.

Azusa chuckled, taking no obvious offense at Usagi's implication. "You can feel free to call me Azusa. And, no, I'm actually her partner," she said cheerfully.

"Partner?" Usagi asked. If her cheeks red before, they certainly were considerably paler in comparison to the moment she thought about what Azusa meant. She looked over at the brunette who was taking pictures in the back of the room. Mariko did seem to be rather familiar toward other women, and though Azusa was older, she didn't look to be _that_ much older. Furthermore, Azusa had a sort of stately elegance that appeared to combine well with Mariko's more effusive charm, so it was possible that…

"No, not _that_ kind of partner, if that's what you were thinking," Azusa said with a gentle laugh. Usagi released an audible gasp as she realized just how perceptive Azusa was of her thoughts. "It's more of a working relationship, although we are very close friends. We're both professional photographers. I specialize in photographing human subjects, while Mariko is _way_ more interested in nature photography. We collaborate in running this studio and at times in our individual endeavors."

"If Mariko-san is more interested in nature, why does she want me to be her model?" Usagi asked innocently. It was a very pertinent question to her, but she didn't want to sound too accusatory.

Azusa stood there for a few moments in deep contemplation. "That you'll have to ask her yourself, but it seems it changed her opinion on photographing human subjects," she said softly. She motioned for Usagi to sit in one of the chairs on the other side of the desk as she slowly plopped into her own seat. "When we originally started the collaboration on this photo book, I wanted to create a few challenges for her. She is a marvelous talent when it comes to nature photography as you can see here," she said while pointing out some pictures in one of Mariko's photo books. "But, I knew she could be equally talented in human photography as well. I wanted her to expand her repertoire. But she just stubbornly refused. I then raised the suggestion of photographing people in nature, so that she could at least feel comfortable taking their pictures." She looked over at the back of the room where the blonde was walking from the set and another girl, with light brown hair, walked in front of the lights. "I don't know how well you can tell, but Mariko is absolutely uncomfortable right now as she's photographing these girls."

"Really? She looks very calm to me," Usagi said in amazement.

"That's the problem. She's normally not so calm, as you may have experienced yourself when you met her this morning," Azusa said solemnly. Usagi enthusiastically nodded. "Whenever she's shooting something that truly interests her she is fully motivated and engaged, and her bubbly, energetic personality is captured in her shots. Here—" she said as she pointed at Mariko— "while the photos will certainly turn out clear and in focus, they will certainly lack that vital bit character." She turned and gazed serenely at Usagi. "So, when she mentioned you and was so excited to be photographing you, I just knew you had to be someone special. Mariko _never_ is that interested in human subjects."

"Wow…" Usagi uttered. Her lips were pulled into a wide smile and her eyes were positively radiant. "I'm so happy that she truly thinks so well of me. I just hope my parents allow me to work with you all. It'll be so much fun!"

"I hope so too."

Usagi looked around at the other girls that were sitting or standing or having her picture taken. She thought about how miserable Mariko had to be while photographing these girls in whom she had absolutely no fascination. How bad was it going to be if she had to spend much of her time photographing them during the actual shoot?

"So… what about the other girls?" Usagi asked. "Are they all going to be in the photo book as well?"

"Well, I'm aiming to have three or four girls in total," Azusa said bluntly. "I was planning on doing all the shots with the girls while Mariko did the accompanying nature shots. However—" her tone became gentler— "if you were to become one of our subjects, I would imagine she would be the one photographing you."

"_Well, that definitely explains all of Ami's fears,"_ Usagi thought. _"She was just being too overprotective, but I guess I can't blame her after our last battle with Kunzite. However, nothing seems to be evil here, so she doesn't have to worry."_

Usagi heard a sudden high-pitched shout emanate from the rear of the building. Her first thought was that maybe there was something going on after all and that she should alert Ami. But soon she realized that it was not a fearful scream but a happy squeal, a high-pitched shriek of unmitigated joy that could only come from one person.

"USAGI-CHAN!" shouted a joyful Mariko as she bounded to the front of the studio at a seemingly impossible speed. A pair of toned arms enveloped the blonde in a tight and affectionate hug. Usagi swore the impact should have knocked the two of them to the ground, but there she was, clearly upright and being twirled about in Mariko's arms. One of the things she thought about as she was being spun about, besides how dizzy she began to feel, was that Mariko had to work out quite often to have such strong arms, never mind the rest of her body.

"I'm so glad you're able to make it to the test shoot!" Mariko exclaimed while still tightly holding on to Usagi.

"Um, Mariko, I don't think you should be so rough with the subjects. You'll make them run away," Azusa said with a wry grin.

Mariko looked down at Usagi who, while happy that her presence delighted and energized the normally effusive brunette, was starting to feel discomfort. Mariko reluctantly released the girl from her arms.

"I'm sorry. I just got carried away, I couldn't help it," Mariko said with a warm, tender smile and wide, glistening chocolate-brown eyes directed at Usagi. Usagi felt slightly embarrassed as Mariko appeared to completely forget she had an audience of twenty other girls, almost all of them utterly flabbergasted by the display.

"It's okay," Usagi said giving a light smile in return. However a bit of nervousness was evident in her voice. She began to blush. Maybe Ami was wrong about the test shoot being part of an evil plot, but it appeared she was right about Mariko being… unduly attracted to other women. She saw Azusa lean close to her.

"She has a boyfriend, so don't worry so much about her crazy antics," Azusa whispered with a hand cupped to Usagi's ear. As she pulled away she winked at Usagi, who answered the wink with a smile.

"Mou… I'm not _that_ bad, am I?" Mariko asked with a pout. Obviously she had heard the words Azusa was trying to conceal from her.

"You did almost crush that poor girl to death," Azusa teased.

"She wasn't that rough with me, I swear!" Usagi exclaimed a bit louder than she probably intended.

"I wouldn't exactly classify that as 'rough,'" Azusa replied with a smile, "More like 'overly affectionate.'"

"But I really can't help it, Azusa. You know how I am with really cute things," Mariko said, looking over at Usagi.

"Yeah, I do. You go completely nuts over them. But I'd be careful. You don't want Kousuke becoming jealous, what with you fawning over this beautiful, sweet girl," Azusa said with a mischievous grin.

Mariko's cheeks turned bright red. "Kousuke knows that I love him dearly. He has nothing to worry about," she said tensely. "It's just… I can't help myself, when I see someone as magnificent as Usagi-chan here. I just get all mushy and hyper at the same time."

Azusa offered a genuinely kind smile to Mariko. "You're always cheerful and energetic. But that's why I like you so much, and why Kousuke completely adores you." She walked toward Mariko and gently placed a hand on her shoulder, while placing her other hand on Usagi's back. "Now, why don't you go and take a few test shots of Usagi-san before we completely frighten her away," she said in a light-hearted, melodious voice.

"Absolutely!" Mariko exclaimed merrily as she led a slightly confused Usagi to the set at the back of the studio.

Usagi stood in front of the white panel just as the other girls before her had done. The ceiling lamp emitted a pure white light that was almost blinding, but amazingly she felt cool beneath them. It was different from what she remembered of Minako's tales of her attempts at becoming an idol. Minako had always complained of the blistering heat of the stage lamps causing her to sweat uncontrollably, which would completely ruin her hair and distract her as she was performing. She laughed softly to herself and involuntarily pulled her lips into a sweet smile. She couldn't help but think that maybe Minako's inability to wow the judges during the idol competitions weren't so much the fault of the lamps. Her eyes shimmered as if they were diamonds as the sapphire blue of her irises mixed with the bright white reflection of the lamps to create an awe-inspiring radiance. She looked off into the distance and she thought about what could be—and the immense irony if she happened to beat Minako to fame and stardom—caused her smile to grow larger. Suddenly she saw a several bright flashes from the corner of her eye and heard a series of clicks.

"Oh my goodness, this is perfect! You look so _adorable_!" shouted Mariko cheerily as she snapped several pictures of Usagi in her trance-like state.

"R-really?" Usagi replied apprehensively. The smile momentarily disappeared from her face as she looked toward Mariko. "I was just standing there. I didn't really do anything."

"Ah, but you had such the dreamy look on your face. It was so magnificent," Mariko said, smiling and mimicking the look she saw Usagi make. Usagi began to blush, which caused Mariko to snap back behind the camera and take a few more shots of the embarrassed girl.

"Oh, so cute, so cute!" Mariko exclaimed, energetically bouncing up and down. She hopped onto the stage and stood next to Usagi.

"So, what was it that got Usagi-chan looking so dreamy… ah, I know! You were thinking about your boyfriend!" Mariko pirouetted around to face Usagi and stared directly into her calm eyes. "He must be so lucky to have such a sweet girl like you. So, who's the lucky boy? Come on, tell me!"

"Nobody," Usagi said dryly. She promised herself she wasn't going to stress herself over Mamoru, and that was one promise she was determined to keep.

"Nobody? That's impossible!" Mariko yelled in shock. "A girl as cute and pretty and amazing as you has to have somebody!"

"_Gah! This woman is extremely nice, but she's waaaaaaay too hyper, worse than any sugar rush I've ever been on,"_ Usagi thought as her face scrunched into a slight scowl. She didn't want to explain to Mariko everything that happened with Mamoru. After all, she just met the strange woman. There was no point in spouting off every detail of her personal life to somebody with whom she had just become acquainted. So she decided to deflect the boyfriend conversation back to Mariko.

"Umm… Mariko-san, so… tell me about Kousuke…" Usagi said haltingly.

"Oh my gosh! He is simply the most amazing person I have ever met! So handsome and caring and devoted and lovely and… and…" Mariko replied, exhaling a deep sigh before falling into the same dreamy trance that befell Usagi just moments earlier. Her eyes shined marvelously and the smile that graced her lips was absolutely glorious as she looked skyward with her hands crossed over her chest. No longer was she the hyper woman that was fawning all over Usagi. She was lost in her dreams about Kousuke. It was blatantly obvious that she was deeply in love with the man.

"Mariko-san?" Usagi asked softly as she noticed the woman was almost completely entranced.

"Oh, sorry, Usagi-chan. I just got so lost for a second thinking about him." She placed a hand on Usagi's shoulder. "I'm sure you'll find someone that will make you feel as happy as Kousuke makes me feel," she said softly, her typical high-pitched, melodious voice far calmer than before.

"I hope so…" Usagi said with her voice trailing off at the end. She was staring off into the distance, her face blank and eyes slightly vacant, thinking about what her love life would be like without Mamoru. Of course, she attracted attention from several boys, even while she was with Mamoru, but Mamoru was her first serious love despite how argumentative and conflicted their relationship was at the beginning. Who could be her new Prince Charming after giving up on the Prince of the Earth? She saw a bright flash of light, and knew that Mariko had taken yet another picture of her.

"So lovely!" Mariko said gleefully after taking the shot. She set the camera down on a desk and removed a small memory card from a slot on the back of the device. She walked over to a computer sitting at a nearby desk, plopped into the rolling chair, and slid the card into the card reader slot. A window opened on the monitor showing preview thumbnails of all the pictures stored on the card. "Oh, I can't wait to see what these look like," she said giddily, full of anticipation as she scrolled through the other pictures to find the photographs she took of Usagi.

"I'm sure they'll be fine," Usagi said, remembering how well the pictures turned out from that morning.

"Ah, here you are," Mariko said when she found the first of Usagi's set. She clicked on the picture, enlarging it to completely fill the monitor. Usagi's eyes widened and her jaw dropped as soon as she saw the first picture. Mariko practically had the exact same reaction.

"Wow…" was all that Usagi managed to utter upon seeing the photograph of herself staring into space dreamily, her smile bright, her eyes resplendent, and her cheeks full of color.

"Usagi-chan, you look absolutely _marvelous_!" Mariko exclaimed as she scrolled through the pictures. She suddenly turned and grasped Usagi around the waist and stared up at her with wide eyes, startling the blonde. "That's it! I _have_ to have you as my model. _Have to!_ You're just so… _perfect_!"

"She does still have to convince her parents to let her go," Azusa said teasingly with a wide grin as she approached the pair from behind, her heels clicking on the wood floor. "Try not to scare her away beforehand."

"Mou…" Mariko released her grasp of the girl. Azusa craned her neck over the seated Mariko to look at the pictures of Usagi displayed on the monitor.

"Hmmm… these pictures really are very good," Azusa said in amazement. "Mariko has such a good eye for finding talented models that it's a shame she isn't very interested in photographing people. Let's print a few out for you so you can show them to your parents. I'm sure they'll have no problem with you working with us once they see some of these."

A few minutes later Usagi received a stack of five freshly-printed glossy pictures from Azusa. She stared at the pictures in wonderment. In her eye, they looked even better printed out than they did on the monitor.

"We didn't even do any touch-ups or color correction," Azusa said confidently. "Imagine how beautiful they would look after that."

"I don't think we'll need to do very many corrections to the photos, as Usagi-chan is as close to perfect as it gets," Mariko said with a tremendous smile directed at Usagi, who returned a bright smile of her own.

"Well, Usagi-san, I know you're interested in this, but are you _really_ sure you want to do this, especially now that you know what you'll have to deal with from Mariko?" Azusa asked slyly, winking at Usagi.

"Hey…" Mariko muttered.

"Absolutely I do!" Usagi exclaimed, her smile widening. "I know Mariko-san is a bit weird at times… okay, all the time, but I also know she has a good heart and her enthusiasm is catchy, and I actually enjoy being with her. In a way, she reminds me of, um—" she paused momentarily to think about just who it reminded her of, and then she suddenly realized— "well, me, actually."

"Excellent! We'll be having another shoot tomorrow evening, mainly so we can figure out which models we want to use for the photo book. You don't have to come since you're pretty much assured of being included," Azusa said, glancing over at a beaming Mariko, "but you're very much invited nonetheless."

"We'll see. I'd like to, surely, but there's something else I have to go to as well," Usagi said, recalling her intended meeting with all the girls that evening. "If I can make it, I'll be here. Either way, I'll let you know what my parents say."

Usagi placed the pictures in her shoulder bag alongside the envelope containing the release form she received earlier from Azusa. She turned to leave but stopped right before walking through the door in order to give one last cheerful wave to Mariko and Azusa.

"I had loads of fun with you all, and I'll certainly see you again!" Usagi said with a gentle smile and wink directed at Mariko before finally leaving the studio.

—|1|**2**|—

Usagi arrived at the library where Ami was busy reading through a stack of books on such subjects as biochemistry and molecular genetics. On one hand, she wondered where Ami found the time for all that reading on such esoteric topics. On the other, she asked herself why Ami was still in middle school when she definitely had the knowledge and talent to skip all the way to college. She reached the desk where Ami was sitting and silently placed her bag on the floor and took a seat next to her friend. The blue-haired girl emerged from her book and gazed at Usagi in anticipation.

"Usagi-chan, how did everything go with the shoot?" Ami asked in tone that, despite her whispering, conveyed her eagerness.

"It was super fun!" Usagi replied in hushed excitement. She reached into her bag to grab both the photo prints and Luna. Fortunately for Usagi, the pair was seated near the back of the library where few people would notice a talking cat. She handed the stack of prints to Ami, who was just floored as she saw the first photograph.

"My goodness, these are amazing! Clear as glass with perfect focus and lighting. The colors are excellent and pop, but not too much. Nothing appears to be washed out or overexposed. My dad would be so proud," Ami said as she poured over the prints. She looked toward Usagi and winked. "Oh, and the model is fairly good-looking as well."

"Ami-chan…" Usagi responded half irritatingly, half playfully. It was somewhat difficult to determine which emotion she truly felt.

"Seriously though, Usagi, you look absolutely stunning in these pictures. I'd say you actually have a decent shot of becoming a model, and maybe a famous model at that."

"You really think so?" Usagi asked in wonderment. Her eyes widened at the thought.

"Yes, very much so," Ami responded with utmost sincerity and a warm smile gracing her lips.

"Thank you, Ami-chan," Usagi said with an even larger, brighter smile.

"Ahem!" Luna exclaimed softly as not to disrupt other patrons and draw attention to her presence, but suddenly enough to startle Usagi and Ami.

"Right, right, Luna. We understand," Ami said, looking toward the black cat standing in front of a pile of books that just happened to hide her from anyone who tried to look toward their desk. "So, did you happen to find anything at the studio that looked suspicious or was linked to Kunzite?"

"No, I didn't sense any particular evil or anything that felt like a youma in the vicinity," Usagi responded in a serious tone. "I'm not sure I would have been able to detect Kunzite if he were around, as he's pretty good at disguising his presence."

"I wasn't as distracted as Usagi was, so I could concentrate much harder on looking for any sign of the Dark Kingdom," Luna said. "I couldn't sense anything in particular, though I did receive weird vibes from Mariko. She did seem to give an inordinate amount of attention to Usagi compared to everyone else there. In fact you could say she practically ignored everyone else except Usagi." Ami gave Usagi a peculiar smirk as Luna delivered the last sentence.

"I know what you're thinking, Ami-chan. She actually has a boyfriend that she's crazy about," Usagi said hurriedly, shooting an annoyed look at Ami who giggled in response. She quickly continued on to prevent much more discussion of just how "interested" Mariko was in the blonde. "Anyway, I also found out why she's doing a photo book with human subjects even though she doesn't like photographing people. It turns out she's working with another photographer who is also her friend. The other woman, Azusa, is going to be taking pictures of the models, while Mariko's doing the nature shots—as well as pictures of me—and they're going to combine them."

"Ah, I see now. Well, that makes sense," Ami said happily. "So there's nothing we need to worry about concerning Mariko, right?"

"I'm not entirely sure," Luna replied solemnly. "I couldn't detect any evil inside the studio, but as we left I felt a sudden surge of dark energy in the general vicinity of the studio. I can't be sure Usagi's completely safe. The Dark Kingdom, and Kunzite in particular, are becoming far more resourceful now, so we can't be complacent."

"I understand," Usagi said softly. "There's another photo shoot tomorrow, so maybe I should bring Luna with me when I go back there." Her mind wandered as she first thought about Mariko and Azusa and her potential illustrious modeling future. She then reflected on the meeting that would take place soon thereafter, and how incredible it would be to finally have her friends truly return to her. Her lips pulled into a light grin and her eyes enlarged, her sapphire-blue orbs strikingly catching the light from a nearby window. "I can't wait for tomorrow!" Usagi said giddily, bouncing up and down in her chair slightly.

"I know you can't, Usagi-chan. I can't either," Ami said gently. "We can finally put all of this mess behind us and return to some sense of normalcy. However," she said with a wry smile as she pulled a tablet and an all-too-familiar looking book from her bag, "we still have one more thing to do before all of that occurs."

"Right!" Usagi agreed, as she removed her own copy of the book and her notepad, as well as a few related accessories and some snacks and a bottle of water. She didn't want to have to interrupt practice for _food_ of all things. A look of steely determination overtook her face as she prepared herself for what she expected to be a marathon practice session.


	19. Prelude to the Main Event

**Chapter 19: Prelude to the Main Event**

"Umm… did I hear that correctly? You said you're going to be a model?" Ikuko asked in confusion, her head tilted to one side and her nose slightly scrunched up. Kenji stood next to her with a stoic look on his face, but in his mind he was racing through a multitude of scenarios. Those scenarios typically resulted in him frightening some young man to tears.

"Yes! A _model_!" Usagi shouted cheerfully while vigorously bouncing up and down. Her energy was immeasurable at this point. Her wide eyes held that rare bright sparkle that only existed when she was truly ecstatic about something. Her sudden, loud, unbridled joy was amazing, as only a few hours ago she was calm and studious as she practiced the dialogue with Ami. Then, as soon as she walked through the front door of her home, she was once again an uncontrollable bundle of happiness.

"I see. And who is it that told you you're going to be a model?" Ikuko asked incredulously. It wasn't that she thought her daughter wasn't beautiful enough for the job. She was Usagi's _mom_ after all. But the whole model talk came completely out of the blue, and she didn't know just who it was that was so interested in photographing her daughter, and for what reason.

"Ah! Her name is Mariko Hasegawa," Usagi said in squeals as she handed her mother the business card with hands that shook so much she almost dropped it. She took a deep breath and exhaled so she could attain some level of calmness. "I met her this morning on the way to school. She said I was beautiful, gorgeous really. She invited me to a test shoot they did after school today which I went to."

"Tell me about this Mariko," Ikuko asked with a hint of suspicion lingering in her voice.

"Well, she's a very nice woman, energetic like I don't know what, but seems very kind and caring. She's also an excellent photographer," Usagi said, still very elated but by then less exuberant. She reached into her bag and pulled out the photo prints that Mariko took of her earlier that day. "See?" she said emphatically.

"Wow! These are absolutely _amazing_!" Ikuko said as she looked over the photos, handing each print to Kenji as she flipped through the stack.

"I have to say this photographer does have some talent," Kenji said gruffly, as he continued to think about what he might have had to do to some poor soul. Despite that, deep down he was happy and proud of how beautiful his Usagi looked in those pictures.

"Yeah! And you know what's awesome? She's normally not all that interested in people! She's more of a nature photographer. But as soon as she saw me she was all over me! She thinks I'm completely cute and adorable and _perfect_!" Usagi spouted maybe a bit more nonchalantly than she should have. She suddenly realized that when she saw a subtle flinch of her dad's eyebrow, though he remained utterly silent.

In a brief instant, Usagi blanched and an almost imperceptible shiver shot through her as she imagined what must have been going through her dad's mind. She knew he was very protective of her. She would have said overprotective. Some of her potential suitors would have said he was downright frightening. But he would merely suggest that he was doing what every good father should do when his daughter attracted as much attention as she did. Namely, make sure that the boy was a good person and worthy of his daughter. It was a downright miracle that he eventually accepted Mamoru, despite the fact he was several years older than Usagi. Even then, he remained suspicious of him, and a part of him was relieved when he learned that the two had split. Nevertheless, Usagi could sense that her dad had perceived Mariko's antics the same way that Ami had comprehended them earlier. And that perception triggered his protective instincts once again. She quickly sought to calm her father, but first she had to address her mother's similar suspicions, and Ikuko wasn't as silent as Kenji.

"Oh _really_?" Ikuko said with a wry grin and her sepia eyes fixed on Usagi. "Could it be that this Mariko is more interested in _you_ than in photographing you?"

Usagi sighed as a combination of nervousness and annoyance flushed through her body slightly dampening her joyful mood. "Don't worry, mama, she has a boyfriend that she really, really loves." She turned to Kenji and gave him a slight nod. His stoic face softened slightly as he realized he didn't have to worry about Mariko.

"I guess that solves that worry," Ikuko said with a light smile, her suspicion completely erased. She expectantly turned to Kenji but he only gave a slight shrug of his shoulders in reply.

"Anyway, she's doing a photo book with another photographer, Azusa Yamasaki," she said, handing the rest of the information sheets and the release form to her mother while grinning. "She'll be able to keep Mariko's craziness in check."

Ikuko studied the information sheet. It showed that the photo shoot would occur over a series of weeks in different places all over Japan, from as far north as Hokkaido to as far south as Okinawa. An anxious look graced her face once again as she considered Usagi would be away from school for some of the shoots.

"This looks fantastic dear, but," she said nervously, "you're going to be away from school for so long. Even though you're doing much better now than before, we still believe you need to spend as much time in school as you can. I don't know…"

Usagi's face paled. She hadn't considered that she would have to miss school to participate in the photo shoots. Her hopes for gaining her parents' permission had risen considerably once she allayed their concerns about Mariko. However, school was about to dampen her hopes, or maybe even completely demolish her nascent dream. With both Mariko's and Azusa's enthusiasm, she was bound to be the primary model for the photo book. But none of it might come to pass, and all because of school. Her formerly brilliant eyes had fallen dull, and her entire being seemed to be falling into a depression. This was where Ikuko's keen awareness of her daughter's emotions was put to excellent use.

"Umm… you know…" Ikuko started slowly and softly, "we can hire a tutor for the times you'll be away. That way you won't miss any lessons. Isn't that right, darling?" She looked back over her shoulder toward Kenji, who hesitantly nodded his head affirmatively after receiving a pointed look from his wife. He hated the expense, but it had to be done, or else he would never hear the end of it. She turned toward Usagi once again with a thoughtful smile. "Would you agree with that?"

The color reappeared in Usagi's face and her eyes widened. "Absolutely! I absolutely agree!" There was a brief moment of silence as Ikuko and Kenji looked over the information sheets and the photo prints once more. "So… can I go with them? Can I be their model?" she asked optimistically with wide, gleaming, puppy-dog like eyes.

"I see no other real problem with that as long as you keep in touch with us every day to let us know how you're doing," Ikuko said happily, delivering to Usagi a wide, bright smile.

"Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU so much!" Usagi exclaimed in utter delight, jumping up and down with a beaming smile before rushing over and embracing each of her parents in a tight hug. Her eyes were clenched shut as tears of joy streamed down her face.

"And be careful not to get into any trouble. If you find—" he coughed a telling cough— "anyone bothering you let me know," Kenji added. Usagi implicitly understood that the 'anyone' referred to any boys who gave her too much attention.

"Dad… I think I can take care of myself," she said with a small pout on her lips. But her annoyance was very short-lived as she then pulled those same lips into a side smile, which drew a similar smile from her dad.

Usagi turned and bounded up the stairs to her bedroom to get ready for bed. At 8:30 PM it wasn't particularly late for her. She usually fell asleep a few hours later on most days. That night, she knew she would need some time to let her excitement subside so she could actually get some sleep. With the next day being such a busy day for her, she would need all the sleep she could get.

—|1|**2**|3|4|—

"Mizuno-san and Tsukino-san, your presentation was just wonderful!" Haruna said approvingly with a bright smile on her face.

The two girls stood in front of the classroom with even larger grins as they savored the teacher's praise and the students' applause. Their presentation was the last one of the class period and, by Haruna's estimation, the best of the day, putting her in an excellent mood just in time for the weekend. In that way, Usagi had done something she'd never achieved before: make the ultra-stern Haruna extremely happy and proud of her. Normally she was one massive disappointment before Haruna's eyes, and her teacher rarely would fail to remind her of that. Of course, that was before everything in her life changed. She was a truly different girl, far more responsible and willing to accept the drudgeries of school with the knowledge that she was far better off in the end. Like everyone except the blue-haired girl standing beside her, Haruna had no idea what instigated Usagi's sudden, drastic shift in behavior. But, she welcomed it with open arms nonetheless. And the ebullient blonde with gleaming sapphire-blue eyes and the widest, prettiest smile she ever gave in a classroom soaked it all up.

"Tsukino-san, I'm very happy that you took this assignment seriously and did a marvelous job with the technical aspects of the English language as well as the presentation before the class," Haruna said, turning to Usagi.

"Thank you so much, Sakurada-sensei!" Usagi said while bowing deeply in front of Haruna. She found it difficult to do so as she was practically still bouncing up and down with joy.

"Your improvement in my class is just staggering." The smile faded as a look of perplexity enveloped her face. "I do wonder that come from all of a sudden?"

"Well… um…" Usagi stuttered as she was knocked from her high by Haruna's sudden change in sentiment. She looked strangely at her teacher's baffled expression for a moment before slowly looking to Ami in confusion.

"Well?" Haruna pressed. Amazingly, even when she was happy with the girl, she was still insistent. Ami merely shrugged, but at that same instant Usagi had a spark of inspiration. Of course she knew where it all came from.

"I guess you could say that I realized what I would lose if I didn't improve," Usagi said while smiling at Ami. The smile was light but full of sincere kindness and love, and Ami immediately realized what her princess's words truly meant.

"I'm glad," Haruna replied, her own smile returning. "So you're saying I won't have to send you to detention for not doing homework or failing another exam, right?" she asked with a slightly sarcastic tone, but followed it with a friendly wink.

"Absolutely not!" Usagi replied enthusiastically with an energetic shake of her head. The bell rang to end the class session.

"I'm relieved," Haruna said with her smile widening. She turned to the class as they were shuffling about and leaving the room to find a place to eat their lunches. "I hope you all have a happy, relaxing weekend. But don't forget about your homework!" she shouted over the din, which then turned into a groan. Even when the woman was happy, she still found time to make all her students miserable with homework.

Usagi and Ami walked down the hall and outside to find the same tree under which they ate lunch the previous day. The day was bright and sunny, and though it was unusually warm it was not unbearably so. In other words, the atmosphere fit Usagi's mood perfectly. She was certain to receive her first high score in any subject other than art. She had Ami to thank for that, primarily for choosing the wonderful book that would be the basis for their dialogue. On the other hand, Ami had Usagi to thank for much of the dialogue's stunning artful presentation, which worked to wow not only their classmates but the extremely stern Haruna. Only Usagi would have thought of using props and doing a light bit of acting of two of the characters. Though Ami initially was against it, Usagi eventually won her over, and the unique suggestion was, in fact, masterful in the end.

"_Hmmfmg_," Usagi mumbled incoherently as she leaned against the tree trunk and swallowed a piece of coffee cake. Being ecstatic didn't eliminate her insatiable appetite, nor did it seem to improve her eating manners. "My mom is going to be so happy when she finds out how well I did on this!"

"Well, we worked so hard on this. _You_ worked so hard on this, Usagi-chan, so you definitely deserve it," Ami said with a warm smile.

"It was your choice of book that made the difference, and—" she took another bite of her cake— "all the early work you did."

"Well…"

Ami's smile faltered, her face blanched, and a glum expression fell across her features as she reminisced on how harshly, how _hatefully_ she had treated Usagi the day they first worked together on the assignment. All the work she did at the outset was done not because she didn't think Usagi was capable—not to say she didn't have her doubts—but because she didn't want to spend even a second longer with Usagi than absolutely necessary. She didn't believe in Usagi, and thus she didn't trust Usagi, and that was her greatest sin. Even though she knew Usagi fully forgave her, she still couldn't forget or even fully forgive herself. As scary the battle with Kunzite was, she felt she was extremely fortunate that it started when it did. She shuddered for a split second as the words she never got to say then, and could never bring herself to utter afterward, crossed her mind. How she almost allowed herself to say something so poisonous to Usagi, the best friend she ever knew, she didn't know. All over some memories that, despite their remarkable origins, ultimately were useless. And on top of all of that, she had the notion to blame it all on Usagi. She cursed herself.

"Ami-chan…?" Usagi whispered in concern as she saw Ami's suddenly hurt expression.

Ami shook herself out of the trance into which she had descended. "Sorry, Usagi-chan. I just spaced out for a bit," she said softly.

"You know I forgive you, Ami-chan," Usagi said as she scooted toward Ami and wrapped her arms around her in a gentle hug. She looked directly into Ami's sullen eyes with her own resplendent orbs and smiled. "So quit beating yourself up over it, okay?"

Ami nodded and soon her self-loathing thoughts disappeared. Just staring into Usagi's calm eyes was sufficient to pacify her tortured soul. That, after all, was her princess's strongest power beyond anything else.

Usagi shuffled back to her previous spot against the tree trunk and popped yet another piece of cake into her mouth. "So, anyway, I talked with my parents last night about, you know, me being a model," she said as she swallowed the delicious delicacy. "They were pretty hesitant at first, but I managed to convince them to let me do it," she said with a playful smile. "My parents were pretty, um, _suspicious_ of Mariko though, the same way you were."

Ami held a hand to her mouth as she failed in an attempt to stifle a light chuckle. "Well, Mariko does seem to like you a lot. And I mean _a lot_," she said with a wink.

Usagi blushed slightly as she rolled her eyes. "That's just her nature. She's very sweet and energetic—well, on a perpetual sugar rush, really—but she doesn't like me like that. She has a boyfriend that she loves very much." She pushed herself from the tree and pulled some sheets of paper from her bag. "Anyway, the other thing is that it seems that I'll be away from school for some of the really far away photo shoots they plan to do," she said as she showed Ami the information sheets.

"Wow, you'll be going all over Japan," Ami said with amazement, her eyes widening as she scanned the list of places proposed for photo shoots. "That should be so much fun! It'll be like taking several small vacations."

"I'm very much looking forward to the shoots," Usagi said enthusiastically at first. Her fervor would wane considerably as she continued. "My mom, however, was pretty concerned about the time I would be spending from school and convinced my dad to get a tutor for me while I'm gone. So, it'll probably be as busy as school, if not more."

"But, you will get to see a lot of really unique things and have lots of enjoyable experiences while you're doing the shoots, experiences that few of us would ever be fortunate to have," Ami said sagely. "So, I wouldn't worry so much about having a tutor go along with you. If I were you, I'd be ecstatic to be allowed to go on the fun ride in the first place." The blue-haired girl smiled widely, drawing a smile from Usagi as her mood was buoyed by Ami's astute advice.

"You're right. I should be happy about that," Usagi said merrily. "I should take advantage of the experience as best as I can." Her eyes widened and shone even more brightly as she expounded on the thought that just flashed in her mind. "Maybe the tutor will be a hot guy, in which case I may never want to go back to school!" she shrieked joyfully as she stared into the clear blue sky.

"I hate to burst your bubble, Usagi-chan, but you know your dad will never allow that to happen," Ami said with cool, logical precision.

Usagi sighed deeply and then chuckled for a few seconds. "I know, I know… but, a girl can dream, right?" she said lightheartedly with a wry smile. "I'm sure I'll find someone who's truly right for me someday." She quickly turned to Ami. "And don't take that the wrong way, Ami-chan. You and Mamoru are perfect for each other, and I like that you two are together like that. I don't want to break that up," she said warmly.

Ami smiled lightly in response to Usagi's kind words and sentiment. Not to say that she was at all happy to have taken the affections of her princess's fated husband, but the fact that Usagi had long-since decided to abandon such fate made it easier for her to not feel so depressed when she honestly contemplated what had occurred. She loved Mamoru, and was always felt complete bliss in his presence. Mamoru loved her the same way, and Usagi was… well, she probably would have preferred that the past few weeks had never occurred, but she was determined to make the best of it and move on. Realizing that, maybe in this lifetime, she and Mamoru might not belong together helped her to recover her sanity and her true joy.

"So, yeah, I'm very much looking forward to that, although I am definitely looking forward to later tonight so much more," Usagi said calmly.

"I am too," Ami replied with a sigh. "I just want all of us back together again. I hate having to pretend to not like you when I'm with the other girls," she whispered.

"Well, tonight is the night that all ends," Usagi said in a more upbeat tone. She flashed a smile at Ami.

"Yeah. The plan is all set and ready to go. We already know the girls will be there. And all you have to do is show up and do your transformation on cue," Ami said softly. A slightly mischievous glint appeared in her eyes, and she could not help but to smirk. "In a way you actually have it pretty easy." Usagi laughed softly, and the blonde's sweet, melodic tones were music to Ami's ears. It was the type of laugh she remembered from Usagi and wished to hear far more often.

"I wish everything was that easy, but then life would be far less interesting I guess," Usagi said with a smile. Ami solemnly nodded in reply.

The deep timbre of the bell echoed around the two girls, reminding them that lunch time was nearing its end and they had to return to class soon.

"Well, I guess I'll be seeing you again sometime around six," Ami said while she placed the remnants of her lunch back into its box and cleaned off the light-blue sheet on which they sat. "Have fun at the photo shoot. And don't let Mariko get _too_ enamored with you, boyfriend or not," she said, with a gentle smile turning into a wry grin.

"Hey, now…" Usagi responded with playful irritation. "Azusa will keep her in check, so don't worry about it." Her fake scowl faded, replaced by a more serious face. "Anyway, you're going to talk with the other girls ahead of the meeting, right?"

"Yes. Minako's insistent that we all talk about the youma situation, although you and I already know about it," she said with obvious annoyance. "I guess they don't know that the youmas they faced were part of a larger plan orchestrated by Kunzite. What that plan is, though, I don't know…"

"I'm sure we'll find out soon. And when we do, the five of us will be able to stop him," Usagi said reassuringly. She quickly stood up and grabbed her bag. "Anyway, as much as history class normally bores me, I have to get there early today. Good luck with the girls and I'll see you later!" she said with a friendly wave and wide smile.

Ami returned the wave with equal vigor. "I'll see you this evening," she said with a kind smile.

—|1|2|**3**|4|—

Usagi stood and silently gazed at her reflection in a mirror that hung on her closet door. She was practically overflowing with anticipation as she knew that in fewer than two hours she would be able to do the one thing she absolutely wanted to do above everything else: get all of her friends back. That she was heading over to Mariko's photo studio with the signed release form that would all but launch her career as a model was only an added bonus for the day. She started to tremble ever so slightly with excitement. A tiny smile spread across her lips as she thought about what she would do once she had all her friends together. It had to be something elaborate and grand, an experience they would never forget. The light smile morphed into a barely perceptible frown as she realized it would take far more planning than she had time for that evening. The celebration would have to wait for another day.

"Usagi, I was just thinking about what you were saying earlier about going up to the studio, and I think I want to go with you again, just to make sure everything is safe," Luna said pensively as she slowly crawled toward Usagi from behind. Her voice seemed to break her charge from the trance-like state she was in.

"Hmmm… I think that may be a good idea," Usagi said softly, "although when I go to 'hand over the crystal'—" she formed dreaded air quotes with her hands as she spoke— "you'll need to find some place to hide. I get the feeling I should go there alone, or at least looking like I'm alone, else it'll blow the whole plan."

"You might be correct about that. Good thing it's in the park as there should be plenty of places for me to hide."

Usagi shivered more noticeably, as if she were hit by a sudden cold wind. That would have been impossible given that her window was closed at the moment. She had been quite anxious about the day and enthusiastic all at the same time, and her slight tremors were a constant. However, she immediately could tell that one was different. She felt as if she were freezing when it occurred, and not warm and bubbly as with the others. Her eyes closed tightly and she searched her mind for any meaning, but she found nothing obvious. It might have been a signal or an omen of some kind, but of what?

"What's wrong, Usagi?" Luna asked worriedly as she gazed up at the tense blonde.

Usagi paused for a few seconds before answering. "It's nothing, really," she said calmly. She bent down and gently cradled Luna in her arms. Her lips tugged into a wide smile. "Now, let's go. There's a certain overly energetic person I want to see before it gets too late."

—|1|2|3|**4**|—

Usagi briskly walked toward the maroon-brick building with the gray-tinted windows that was Mariko's and Azusa's photography studio. The first time she was there she almost had made a complete fool of herself as she was uncertain she was at the correct place. This time she had no doubt she was where she belonged. She pulled open the door and purposefully walked into the studio, but only took a few steps before coming to a halt. Even on the second trip the place seemed to inspire awe within her. There appeared to be just as many girls there as before, ranging from late junior high to early college age. And, just like before, all of them were stunningly beautiful, which made Usagi wonder just how she was so quickly accepted among her competition.

"Usagi-san, welcome back. I'm really happy you came by today, considering you said yesterday that you may not have had the time," Azusa said softly with a warm smile. She sat at the desk and filtered through a huge stack of folders. Each one was a file that contained photographs and other information of a girl that, to the person, hoped Azusa would choose her as a model.

"Hi, Azusa-san," Usagi said cheerfully with an equally wide smile. "I'm happy to be here and to see you and Mariko-san again as well. I do have to leave around six o'clock, however." That meant she had only an hour, since it was five o'clock already.

"What did your parents say about being one of our models?" Azusa asked eagerly.

"Well, they were a little resistant at first, especially when I told them about Mariko-san, but they eventually agreed to it!" Usagi exclaimed. Her eyes widened and shone brightly as she held up the signed release form.

"That's excellent!" a thrilled Azusa said as she took the paper from Usagi and placed it into a lone folder that had been sitting aside. That was Usagi's file and, as far as Azusa was concerned, she was the only girl guaranteed a spot. She sighed inwardly as she thought about the other four models that she would be photographing and the hundreds of almost equally matched applicants that vied for the few spots. It was going to be a difficult few days, to say the least.

"So, where's Mariko-san? I don't see her anywhere," Usagi said as she stood on her toes and scanned around the studio.

"Ah! She's probably out back taking outdoor photos of some of the prospective models," Azusa said. She carefully pushed the maroon-rimmed glasses further up her nose and chuckled slightly as Usagi's head tilted sideways in confusion. "We have a garden behind the studio, a fairly sophisticated and sizable and—if I do say so, very beautiful—garden. It's more like a natural habitat than most of the gardens here. Mariko designed it and cares for it along with Kousuke. It's her personal refuge from the drabness of the studio," she said pensively.

"I think I understand. I feel so sorry for her. She must have been absolutely miserable yesterday being forced to take pictures of people indoors," Usagi said softly with unabashed compassion for Mariko.

"She was. Absolutely she was. But I think being outside helps her greatly, though not nearly as much as when she gets to photograph you."

Usagi blushed furiously. She knew the bubbly brunette was absolutely ecstatic whenever she was around, almost to the point of utter silliness. No, she was far beyond that point, actually. But she was amazed and delighted that her mere presence could bring another person so much unmitigated joy.

"If you want, you could go out and see her," Azusa offered with a smile.

"I'd absolutely love to, but… knowing Mariko-san… Let's just say I don't want to ruin the other girls' shoots," Usagi said, giving her own wry smile at the end.

"I can take over for her. Besides, she's been at it for quite a few hours already. She more than deserves a break," Azusa said more emphatically.

"A few hours?" Usagi asked in slight shock. Indeed, it was an awfully long amount of time to do something so monotonous, despite the various girls that passed before her lens.

"Yes, that long. She may be silly and hyper and child-like at times, but she is fundamentally a very hard worker," Azusa said solmenly. "It's her work ethic that allowed her to be successful as a nature photographer when it's not remotely the most popular subject in photography. In fact, sales of her photo books rival those of any model, and the release of one of her books is something of an event. But it's due not just to her incredible talent but her indefatigable will to work for as long and as hard as it takes to make things as close to perfect as possible. I absolutely look up to Mariko in that regard and I am fortunate to have her not only as a partner but a very close friend."

"Wow…" was all Usagi could utter after hearing Azusa speak so highly and so passionately of Mariko.

"So, should we go outside?" Azusa asked with a wide grin. Usagi nodded enthusiastically in reply. She followed the raven-haired woman through the rear door of the studio and into the most beautiful garden she had ever seen, including her mom's. And for most of her life she had considered Ikuko's garden to be one of the most impressive ever.

The first thing that astounded Usagi was the immense size of the garden. It clearly took up the remainder of that plot and the entirety of the plot behind the building. The back of the garden, where it abutted the sidewalk for the next street, was bounded by a tall green-painted fence. She had passed by that empty space and fence several times without knowing just what was on the other side. The second thing that astounded her was the variety of plants that were in the garden, and how many of them looked absolutely foreign to her. There were the typical flowers and shrubbery, but that only occupied a small fraction of the garden, which was dominated by more natural foliage, the kind that one would find in the countryside and forests that marked rural Japan. For a brief moment she might as well have not been in Juuban or anywhere remotely close to Tokyo prefecture but somewhere in the mountains. It was only a sudden random blast of a distant car horn that shocked her back to reality.

"This is absolutely amazing," Usagi whispered with awe as she stared at her surroundings. She heard a light rumble from her left that steadily grew louder. She braced herself for the expected impact. She was not disappointed.

"USAGI-CHAN!" Mariko shouted joyfully as she enveloped Usagi in an amazingly tight hug and started to bounce up and down while holding the blonde.

"So nice to see you too, Mariko-san!" Usagi exclaimed merrily, though her voice was jerky due to the constant bouncing.

Mariko soon stopped bouncing and slowly released the hug as she noticed Azusa's pointed, yet simultaneously amused stare. The older woman then held a hand to her face to hide her giggles.

"Mou… Come on, Azusa-chan…" Mariko complained in a light whine.

"I know… I know… you can't help yourself, and in a way I can't blame you," Azusa said as she glanced at Usagi, whose cheeks flushed light red.

"My, my, Usagi-chan! Tell me, how have you been?" Mariko asked in her usual excited fashion.

"I'm doing quite well," Usagi managed to spit out as she tried to collect herself from the previous jouncing. She looked at the ground for a few seconds to calm down and then turned her head to look at Mariko with wide and absolutely resplendent eyes. "Mariko-san, I spoke with my parents about being a model, and it looks like you'll be seeing me a lot more often now."

Mariko grasped Usagi's arms and pulled her into another tight, heartfelt hug, although this time she somehow resisted the urge to start bouncing once again.

"This is absolutely wonderful news! _Wonderful!_" Mariko shrieked. "I'm so happy that I get to be with and photograph the cutest, most gorgeous, and most marvelous girl I've ever seen!" She gently pushed Usagi back and stared at her with the most magnificent chocolate-brown eyes the young blonde had ever seen. "Oh, thank you so much, Usagi-chan," she said, this time much more calmly and warmly. "I'm sure you'll have so much fun, as will I, when…"

Usagi shrieked and stuck out her arms as the usually animated and energetic Mariko suddenly fell. Without the girl's quick actions, the brunette would have collapsed into a heap right there. Azusa ran and quickly helped Usagi lay the unconscious and amazingly heavy woman to the ground without causing any more injury. The sight of the tall, shapely woman lying prone and motionless on the gravel pathway, her silky brown hair partially obscuring her pale face, contrasted sharply with the seemingly endless fountain of energy that Usagi had known. It was a display that absolutely upset and frightened her.

"What just happened?" Usagi asked with a terrified voice. She felt around for some evil presence but could not detect anything, though her emotional state didn't help her much.

"I have no idea, as I've never seen that happen before. I do think we should call an ambulance, and fast," Azusa replied hurriedly but with a modicum of calmness in her voice. It was obvious she was trying to maintain some composure and think rationally through the situation. Her hyperventilating and trembling was a clear sign she was having quite a bit of trouble with that.

Usagi nodded and reached into her bag for her cell phone. Before she could even flip the phone open she heard a faint groan emanate from her feet. Luckily, Mariko slowly was coming to. Color gradually returned to face and to the rest of her body. She attempted to lift herself from the ground but couldn't quite find the strength in her arms to do so.

"Mariko-chan! Are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere?" Azusa asked with palpable concern scrawled across her face as she stared at her dear friend with widened eyes. She gently held Mariko's shoulders with lightly trembling hands.

"I'm fine, I'm fine, Azusa-chan," Mariko said as she gave the best smile she could despite how weak it truly was. She winced slightly as she slowly rolled over onto her stomach so she could make another attempt to push herself from the ground. That time, she successfully managed to separate herself from the hard and pointy gravel and, with Azusa and Usagi helping her, she soon was standing on her feet.

"You should go inside and rest for a bit," Azusa said as she cautiously checked Mariko for any obvious injuries and found nothing she could recognize as such. She gently placed her hand on the tall brunette's forehead as if checking for a fever. A few seconds later she removed her hand and shook her head slowly. She was satisfied that Mariko wasn't sick but had even more confusion and unanswered questions from that small exam.

"Yeah, it may be a good thing for me to go inside for a bit. I'll take Usagi-chan with me, if you don't mind?" Mariko said faintly while giving the blonde a dim smile.

Usagi nodded enthusiastically. "It's no problem for me. Besides, I think Mariko-san needs all the help she can get right now."

Usagi carefully held one of Mariko's arms to steady her and led the pair back into the building. A few times Mariko appeared to waver or stumble, but Usagi ensured that she never collapsed. Once inside, she guided Mariko past the crowd of girls waiting to have their photos taken and to one of the sofas near the front of the studio. She assisted the brunette as she gingerly reclined across the soft cushions. A range of emotions from concern to confusion to agitation spread through the mass of hopeful models as they slowly realized what was going on. However, Mariko ignored them and focused her attention on Usagi.

"I'm sorry, Usagi-chan. I don't know what happened to me. I'm usually not like this," Mariko whispered. She turned and gazed at Usagi with pale, miserable-looking eyes. "I hope I'm not being too much of a bother to you."

Usagi slowly shook her head as she handed Mariko a pillow from the other sofa. "You're not a bother. Despite your, um… sometimes crazy, I guess we can call it, ways, I don't mind them and I definitely enjoy being around you," she said softly with a warm smile and utter sincerity.

"I'm truly happy to hear that, and I assure you that you'll see a lot more of that as soon as I get over whatever seems to be ailing me," Mariko said with a more mischievous smile.

"I certainly hope so. It would be too boring without it," Usagi replied with a chuckle. Mariko's melodious laughter soon followed, and it was apparent her spirits were improving quite steadily.

"I wish you could stay longer, but I remember you saying you had something else to do today as well. I was hoping that the four of us could visit this nice little restaurant I know of that's not too far from here and get to know each other a bit more before the first leg of the actual shoot," Mariko said wistfully.

"Four?" Usagi asked with confusion hanging in her voice.

"You, me, Azusa, and my sweet Kousuke," Mariko replied with her lips pursed in a pout.

"_Ah!_" Usagi exclaimed. She released a sigh laced with disappointment. "Unfortunately I can't today, although I absolutely would like to sometime in the near future." Her eyes suddenly began to shine brilliantly as they widened in response to the idea she produced. "Maybe this weekend if you guys aren't too busy. I can bring my friends along if it's not too much of a hassle."

"Actually, that would be great. I definitely would like to meet them as well." Mariko tilted her head and her eyes slightly narrowed. "I wonder if your friends are as cute as you are?" she asked, at first pensively and with a seriousness that made Usagi feel slightly nervous. The tension was diffused by a quick wink from the brunette, and Usagi merely blushed furiously after that.

"Would you be interested in photographing them too if Usagi here were to answer yes?" teasingly asked Azusa. Somehow, she had walked up behind the two without attracting their attention.

"I don't know… It depends on if they are as beautiful and as wonderful and as… _perfect_… as Usagi-chan is. Something within me doubts that," Mariko said calmly as she gazed at Usagi, which only made the blonde's cheeks turn redder.

Azusa smiled as she shook her head. "Mariko, you were always one to embellish, but for some strange reason I think you're serious with this one here." She walked closer to Mariko and tenderly placed a hand on her shoulder. "I'm glad you're starting to feel better. We'll wrap up soon with the last of these girls and then head out in an hour or so, okay?" she said softly and with genuine warmth.

"Thanks, Azusa-chan. I'll let you know when I'm ready," Mariko replied quietly with equal warmth.

Azusa departed and began organizing the remaining girls and herding them outside so she could take their test shots. She couldn't wait for the last photo to be taken and the models to be chosen. The selection process was always difficult and nerve-wracking as she needed to make sure she absolutely chose the correct girls. As she ushered the last of the potential models outside, she thought about how easy Mariko had to have it, at least at that stage. Although Mariko did have to scope out uniquely beautiful locales for the photo shoots, she didn't have to worry about that until later. Furthermore, locations, inanimate objects, plants, and animals never became disappointed by rejection. That made the decision-making process all the more stressful. It was a stress that Mariko didn't truly have to feel, despite eagerly volunteering to assist Azusa with the selection process, as she already had her own girl.

Usagi turned toward the mass of girls exiting the studio through the rear door for a few seconds before returning her gaze to Mariko.

"Usagi-chan, do you know why it is that I say that you're perfect?" Mariko asked with a soft, gentle, and utterly serious tone that surprised Usagi.

"Well…" Usagi started hesitantly. Her eyes pointed at the ceiling as she reflected on the multitude of compliments Mariko paid her in the scant two days they had known each other. Above all, the word _perfect_ seemed to rise to the top. That nothing is truly perfect was something she knew all too well, so use of the word had to be either cruel irony or a code for something else, and since Mariko obviously liked her she figured it was the latter. What that was, however, she couldn't quite fathom. Was it that Mariko saw something in her that attracted the older woman? Were Ami's and her parents' suspicions correct after all?

"I know what you're thinking, Usagi-chan," Mariko said softly with a gentle smile, "and although I do like you a lot, it's not in _that_ way."

"_Were my thoughts _that_ obvious?"_ Usagi asked herself as her eyes widened with shock. She quickly collected herself and attempted to decode the meaning of Mariko's use of _perfect_ to describe her. She searched her mind as thoroughly as she could but soon discovered, to her disappointment, that she truly had no clue. Her body slumped, her eyes dimmed and turned downward, and her shoulders shrugged as an almost automatic reply to her lack of answers. Indeed, why on Earth _would_ Mariko see her as perfect? She saw herself as average in appearance, maybe slightly greater than that, but no more. Yes, she had an awfully kind heart, but a heart that had been broken and trampled upon and was only just then beginning to truly be repaired. Unless Mariko was unusually perceptive of other's personalities, it was unlikely that the woman would see that aspect of her so quickly. So, as far as she saw herself, she was flawed and, despite her alter-ego, only human. Certainly not perfect.

"I… I don't know," Usagi stammered quietly.

"She may not know, but I certainly do." Those words that echoed about the studio were spoken with a serious tone by a mysterious man with a silky-smooth baritone voice. A baritone that seemed to make Mariko's eyes light up with unfettered joy, yet at the same time it filled Usagi with dread. That voice sounded eminently familiar to her, as it was the voice of the last person she wanted to see at that time.

"Kousuke!" Mariko exclaimed with glee as she lifted her head up from the sofa so her resplendent chocolate-brown eyes could take in the full view of the person she loved more than any other.

Usagi slowly turned around to gaze at the man Mariko loved so dearly. She felt her heart sink into her stomach as trepidation turned into outright sadness. That sadness then rapidly transformed into anger that accumulated to an intensity she rarely ever felt.

"_It can't be… It just cannot be. He's the last person I wanted to see, and especially right now. Why is he _here_?"_ Usagi thought as she stared down the man with narrowed, furious eyes. All of the muscles in her body seemed to become tense as she studied him and contemplated what her response would be.

The mysterious man appeared to be doing the exact same thing with Usagi, yet his manner was far more relaxed, like he didn't have a care in the world what was going on. He smiled at Usagi, which made her even more apprehensive as she recognized just what the smile meant. It wasn't so much a smile as it was a smirk. His blue-grey eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly as he spoke once again.

"It's very nice to see you again… _U- sa- gi_."


	20. Surprises and Revelations

**Chapter 20: Surprises and Revelations**

A pale yellow sun had started to slowly descend from the evening sky, leaving a trail of oranges, reds, and violets in its wake. Long shadows formed by the surrounding tree line stretched across a small clearing in a more secluded section of Juuban Park. It was near closing time for the park and there were very few people around except for staff and police. The lone exception to this was a quartet of young girls standing near the edge of the clearing, partially obscured by the darkness of the shadows. They were all wearing similar-looking uniforms of skirts and bows atop white leotards. The blue-haired girl wearing a similarly hued skirt darted her visor-shielded head around, up and down, left and right, as if desperately looking for something. Two other girls, one predominantly wearing orange and the other green, stood nearby, wearing faces of utmost anxiety. The last girl, in red and navy blue, leaned against a tree and silently brooded. Her anger and impatience were palpable and it took all of her willpower just to maintain a sense of calm as she thought about the person they expected to arrive in any moment. The four of them, Ami, Minako, Makoto, and Rei, were waiting for Usagi to arrive and, as all but one of them expected, give up the Silver Crystal so they could hand it to the princess.

"Well, where the hell is she?" Rei growled angrily.

"Mars… don't worry. She said she'd be here just after six o'clock. We still have a few minutes," Ami replied with cool air about her. Indeed there were five minutes to go until the hour came, but Ami knew that the longer they waited the less she would be able to keep Rei calm.

"Well, I'm just eager to get this over with. I don't want to have to see that little bitch for any longer than I have to," Rei sneered.

"Oh, come on, Rei, get over it for just one day," Minako said forcefully, followed by a sigh.

She knew how hard the past several weeks had been on them. First, they learned that their true purpose in life was to protect the princess, not this fellow senshi called Sailor Moon who, once, took the form of their princess. Second, this Sailor Moon appeared to sabotage them in their fights against the Dark Kingdom in the guise of general klutziness. Finally, she, by some unknown method, found the princess they were to protect and took the Silver Crystal from her, leading to their original plan to recover the crystal by force. All of a sudden, the major source of their consternation would end with the voluntary return of the crystal. But the pain they endured in the interim would be far more difficult to overcome.

"I know how you feel, but this is just too damned important for you to go and let your emotions take control of you. So, please, try to calm down," Minako told Rei, albeit more softly than before.

There was a soft rustling in the bushes on the other side of the clearing. Ami was the first to detect it. She turned to look in that direction with her visor, hoping that finally Usagi had arrived. However, her Mercury computer did not interpret the signals from the visor as belonging to the pigtailed blonde, but to some unknown being—an unknown being that was not a normal animal, nor another person.

"I think there's something on the other side of the clearing," Ami said in a cautious tone.

"Is it Usagi?" Makoto asked expectantly, with Ami shaking her head in reply.

"The princess?" followed Minako in a hesitant voice.

"No. I don't know what it is, but I think we should be careful and keep our guards up," Ami said.

At that moment, a small, onyx-black creature similar in shape to a jellyfish leaped from the bushes and bolted through the air, aiming directly at Makoto. The youma had a pair of beady red spots that glowed intensely near the top of its body where one might have expected eyes. An ominous grey mist surrounded the thing despite the incredible speed at which it crossed the clearing. Indeed, it was amazing how quickly the youma flew, and equally amazing how the senshi managed to react in so little time.

"_Look out!_" Minako cried as all four of the girls threw themselves to the ground. Appearing as a blur the youma dashed past Makoto's head, barely grazing her, before coming to an unexpected stop courtesy of one of the trees. A loud thud and a bright flash of white light behind the girls, followed by the appearance of a pile of sand-colored dust along the ground that quickly vaporized, informed the girls that the youma, somehow, had met its demise.

"What the hell was _that_?" a startled Rei asked as she pushed herself up from the ground. The sudden attack spooked her out of her latent anger toward Usagi.

"I have no idea, but there seems to be more of them coming from above," Ami replied. The Mercury computer sent a series of beeps into her earpiece, warning her of an approaching enemy.

Sure enough, five more identical-looking youmas swooped down from the sky in a 'V' formation, this time moving more slowly as to not end up with the same fate as their predecessor. The lead youma fired a black bolt of lightning at Ami, who managed to jump out of the way just in time. The outermost two youmas each released a red ball of fire at Rei, which proved to be a mistake.

"Seriously, using _fire_ against _me_?" she said in a mocking voice as she gracefully sidestepped both flaming balls and prepared to send her own attack. She brought her hands together and ignited her extended index fingers to create a tiny red ball of fire at her fingertips. With great concentration, the ball expanded until it fully engulfed her hands. She looked up at one of the youmas in the formation as it turned to make another pass at the group of girls with eager violet eyes.

"Fire Soul!" she yelled with a fervor that was only to be exceeded by what she had planned to do later that evening. With that utterance, the ball of flame streamed from Rei's hands and bolted toward the formation of youmas. Although she had aimed at only one of them, the flames soon surrounded the entire group and, one by one, they fell from the sky as sprinkles of dust. She smiled with satisfaction as she observed the deaths of not one but five youmas. However, that contentment was to be short lived.

As the raven-haired girl stood there giving her wry smile, a much larger youma strolled into the clearing from the opposite tree line. Merely by looking at the thing, the girls immediately sensed that their next enemy would be far more difficult than the creatures they just dispatched. The youma was humanoid in that it stood on two legs with feet and possessed two arms, two hands, and a head. That was the extent of its humanity. The monster stood about eight feet tall with arms and legs that looked like they were composed of pure muscle and a midsection that seemed to disagree. It was covered in a tough, bumpy, leathery skin that was a patchwork of brown, red, and dark green. In other words, it was hideously ugly. Adding to its repulsive appearance were deep yellow eyes that lacked pupils and small, black wings that extended from its back that gave the girls no confidence in its ability to fly. There were no obvious weapons on the youma, but as the senshi were to soon discover, it didn't need them.

"Okay… I think we might want to keep a bit of distance between ourselves and that thing," Minako said hesitantly.

"I definitely agree with you. I don't think I'll be doing any hand-to-hand combat with that," Makoto added with sarcasm, though only in an attempt to hide her fear.

The youma slowly took one step toward the group of girls, followed by another. Those steps forward were reciprocated by backward steps by each senshi except for Makoto, who stood her ground. Sure, she was frightened—as were all of them—but she decided that somebody had to take a stand and, hopefully, inspire everybody to fight back. She narrowed her jade-green eyes as she stared at the beast. The immense youma stopped and returned its own evil gaze. She crossed her arms in front of her chest as a small antenna slowly rose from green jewel lodged within her tiara. The antenna sparked as bright-green lightning came down from the sky and cackled as it danced between the rod and her body. She extended her arms in the direction of the beastly youma and yelled as forcefully as she could the words "Supreme Thunder_._"

A magnificent bolt of green lightning shot from her fingertips and struck the youma directly in the chest. It stepped backward, stunned by the ferocity of the attack and slightly weakened as a result, but certainly far from destroyed. Instead, it raised its arm and pointed an open hand at Makoto. Seconds later the brunette found herself slammed against a tree as a massive blast of energy hit her squarely. She fell from the tree and landed face down with a sickening thud.

"Jupiter!" the other girls cried in unison. Fortunately, Makoto was only temporarily knocked out by the blast, but that attack infuriated the other girls and jolted them into action.

"Sabão Spray!" Ami yelled as she sent forth a stream of ice-cold bubbles designed to blind the youma and provide the girls cover as they took flanking positions.

Minako stood to the left of the youma and Rei to the right. Minako attacked first, extending her right arm out at the youma, her finger extended in a pointing gesture.

"Cresent Beam!" Minako shouted furiously. At that moment, a laser-like stream of golden energy erupted from her finger and blasted the youma in the side of its body. The attack only served to alert the youma to the blonde's presence and, much like it did only moments before, it raised its hand and sent the girl flying with a similar wave of energy.

Rei was startled by the lack of effect that Minako's attack seemed to have on the youma. By then, Ami's bubbles had faded, giving the youma a clear look at its next adversary. She knew that if Minako and Makoto were so easily dispatched by the youma, then she would have equally bad fortunes against it. However, if the youma could be frozen for a short while, then they could have a chance to recover and rejoin the fight. She retrieved an ofuda and held it in front of her as she began chanting softly. Before she could say the words necessary to initialize her attack she felt a sharp pain in her stomach as she too was launched by the youma's energy blast.

"_Why aren't any of their attacks working?"_ Ami thought as she concealed herself behind a tree and attempted to scan the youma with her visor and Mercury computer for any weaknesses. Then, another thought hit her and scared her stiff. _"What would Usagi-chan do if she were to come in right now?"_ she pondered. It was the time she was expected to arrive after all. _"Would she transform into Sailor Moon and try to fight this thing? I don't doubt that she would succeed, as she's far stronger than any of us, but then that would ruin everything thereafter."_

It was at that time, with Rei knocked unconscious, the other two senshi slowly recovering from their wounds, and Ami left with no real attack of her own, that another evil presence decided to make an appearance. Ami's computer started going haywire as the immensely dark power that emanated from this person overwhelmed the sensors.

"I'm so disappointed in all of you," the being said derisively in a somewhat high pitched, though obviously masculine, voice. "I would have expected much more out of four senshi in going up against only one of my youmas."

Minako looked up and saw, floating in the sky, a man wearing grey trousers that were partially covered by tall black boots and a dark-grey, long-sleeved jacket trimmed in green. Long, wavy, light-brown hair flowed down his back and was tied in a low ponytail. His dark-green eyes were narrowed he looked over all of the senshi.

"Zoisite!" Minako shouted in absolute shock and fear.

"_Zoisite? He must have been the one to send the youmas. Why is he here? Does he know what's going on and what our plans are?"_ Ami thought as she crouched even lower behind the tree and surrounding bushes.

"Yes. That does happen to be my name, Sailor Venus," Zoisite said with a growing smirk on his lips. "Although, I don't know why you are so surprised to see me… Ah, wait, I got it now. You were looking for somebody _else_…"

"Zoisite, you are going to be sorry for ever showing up here," Makoto said with growing anger.

"Ah, Sailor Jupiter, how do you expect _me_ to feel sorry if you can't even lay a tiny scratch on my youma?" Zoisite replied mockingly. "Anyway, you guys need to concentrate on the task at hand. I'll be—what's the word? Ah, yes… I'll be _nice_ and stay over here out of the way while you guys try to figure this one out. It'll provide me some nice entertainment, if nothing else." He gave another sarcastic smile before teleporting to one of the distant trees upon which he sat.

"What on Earth does he think he's—_OOMPH_!" Minako whispered as she stared at Zoisite and forgot about the youma that closed in on her until it was too late. She felt herself being picked up by her throat and heaved into a tree on the other side of the clearing.

While that blow didn't help Minako out any, it greatly assisted Ami in her attempt to find a way to defeat the youma. When it lifted the blonde and threw her, it turned its back to Ami, allowing her to clearly scan that side of the creature. While previously her visor and computer detected nothing of any special importance besides what they already knew, when she looked at the youma's back the wings immediately were outlined in bright yellow. Those small, black wings were its source of strength and energy, and thus were the obvious target. All she had to do then was find a way to convey that information to the others without revealing her position. It wasn't that she was afraid to fight, but she had nothing with which to do the job, especially against something as massive and powerful as that youma. She pulled out her communicator and tapped on the images of Minako, Makoto, and Rei—who had since regained consciousness and struggled to get back to the tree line. Instead of initiating a video chat like she did the last time, she tapped another button on the screen which brought up a small keyboard. She hurriedly typed out her message and tapped the screen again. Within a second each of the three senshi heard a small beep and then the message in a feminine computerized voice: "_Everyone aim for the wings._"

Makoto responded to Ami's message by running as quickly as she could toward the youma and leaping over it with the hope of catching it flat-footed and getting behind it. However, despite its size, the creature was less ponderous and far more mobile than she expected. She landed cleanly on her feet and turned around only to find herself looking right into an incoming fist from the youma. Luckily, she managed to duck and avoid the potentially deadly blow, but she lost the advantage and the element of surprise she had hoped to attain.

While Makoto was eluding the youma's attacks, Rei found herself in the perfect position to launch an attack directly at its back. She summoned all the strength she could muster and prepared to send her fire attack at the beast. She held her hands together as before and ignited a fireball that she then sent flying toward the youma with the incantation "Fire Soul." The red ball of flames quickly approached the monster and hit its target, sending the youma stumbling forward in pain. However, the attack failed to kill the youma or even destroy the wings on its back, which Rei immediately regretted as she found herself on the receiving end of another massive energy blast.

Minako then found herself with the advantage and a clear shot at the youma's wings. She struggled to push herself up from the ground and stand on her feet. Once upright, she extended her arm toward the youma and launched another attack with the words "Crescent Beam." The focused blast of energy nailed the youma right in the back and sent it careening to the ground, yet not even that powerful attack managed to kill the monster or destroy its source of energy.

In the distance, Zoisite glanced at a small gold pocket watch he held in his hand. _"Hmm… I think it's about time I see how my brother is handling the other one. Too bad he has to deal with that girl himself, and he can't sit back and relax like me,"_ he thought as a mischievous grin spread across his lips. He then closed his eyes and concentrated hard on the message he would send, faintly glowing green as he telepathically sent his words across Juuban district. Seconds later, via the same telepathy, he received a reply. He smirked. Everything was going according to plan. He hopped down from the tree and walked into the clearing.

"Bravo! I see you all have managed to find my youma's weakness. That is, the wings on its back are the talismans that allow it to send energy attacks," he said mockingly as he slowly clapped his hands. The three attacking senshi glared angrily at him from their respective positions while Ami remained hidden in the trees. "Those same wings are also its weak point. So, what should I do…?"

"How about getting your ass out of here and taking that youma with you?" Rei spat out irately. Her violet eyes narrowed and locked on Zoisite's eyes.

"Unfortunately, Sailor Mars, that's not an option that I have… not yet, at least." His eyes widened and his finger shot up into the air as if he had just remembered something. "I know what I can do. How about I tell you guys a little story," he said teasingly.

"How about you go to hell!" Minako shouted.

"Now now, girls. I'm sure you'll be very much interested in my story, as it directly involves you as characters." He cleared his throat before speaking. "Once upon a time, there were five little girls who decided to play dress up and save the world from this big, bad queen and her consort of evil companions."

"We don't have time for goddamned stories, Zoisite," Makoto yelled as she prepared to send her lightning attack at the youngest member of the Shittenou. However, she barely started the motions when the man held up his hand and sent several balls of pure energy, each emitting an intense green glow, at the brunette. Instead of knocking her out like the energy attacks from the youma, his attack caused her to freeze in place.

"Why would you want to attack me, Sailor Jupiter? All I did was try to tell a story. And I thought it was a pretty good one too," he said teasingly after rendering Makoto immobile. He looked all around at the senshi collected in front of him. "There's one of you missing. Actually, there're two of you missing, but I have a pretty good idea where that one is hiding." He slightly narrowed his eyes and adopted a more serious tone. "Anyway, can someone tell me why Sailor Moon is not here?"

All of the girls except Ami gasped at his question. Ami already knew that Kunzite was looking for Usagi, so she assumed Zoisite was doing the same thing and for the same reason. The other three girls were dumbfounded that he would focus on Usagi's absence.

"Why would you care?" Minako said flippantly. "You have us four. Why would you want to go about adding a fifth?"

"I don't really care to be honest. I'm just curious. On the other hand, I think you girls _would_ care immensely to know why she's not here," he said with a mischievous smirk. "You see, I know what you girls are up to. I know that you're looking for Princess Serenity."

That statement elicited another gasp from all of the girls, again with the exception of Ami, who knew that Usagi and Princess Serenity were one in the same.

"Now," he continued, "we're _also_ looking for Princess Serenity, and unfortunately for you, it seems _we've_ found her first. Kunzite's in the process of dealing with her right now."

That was the statement that got Ami to flinch. _"Crap! _That's_ why she's not here. And now Usagi has to fight Kunzite all alone. What's going on?"_ Ami muttered to herself.

"Don't you _dare_ lay a finger on our princess!" Rei shouted in anger. Her eyes were starting to turn bright red as the fury within her swelled.

"Now, how can I touch your precious princess when I'm over here and she's on the other side of town?" he asked mockingly as he stared at the senshi of fire. "As I said, Kunzite is dealing with your princess, but he's run into a problem, and that problem is Sailor Moon. Of course, I don't expect her to be Kunzite's problem for too much longer."

"What do you mean by that?" Minako asked intently.

"Well, Sailor Moon has no chance against Kunzite, so I don't see why she should even try," he said. "She's probably far more useful helping you girls fight against this youma than she would be interfering with Kunzite's plans, so I recommend you girls call her."

Rei snorted. She was about to make some sarcastic remark about Usagi but was restrained by Minako, who with great foresight grabbed Rei's arm, pulled the raven-haired girl to her, and told her in no uncertain terms to not say anything negative about a fellow senshi in Zoisite's presence. Instead, she decided to speak for her senshi.

"Zoisite, we're not going to do that. Sailor Moon is more than capable of protecting the princess, and _we_ expect to be there assisting her and our princess shortly, after we deal with you," she said with unwavering confidence.

"You really think Sailor Moon has a chance against Kunzite, _alone_?" he retorted.

"You have no idea how powerful she is."

"Apparently neither does any of you, given your plans to eliminate her."

Minako flinched. _"We did have that plan, but with Usagi giving the crystal up, we didn't have to carry it out. Anyway, how the hell did he find out?"_ she thought.

"What are you talking about? That's unthinkable! There's no such plan!" she yelled with as much confidence as she could gather, hoping to sound convincing.

"Maybe so. Anyway, I definitely think you should call Sailor Moon and have her come and assist you then, if you truly believe she's as powerful as you claim. Trust me, you'll need all the help you can get," Zoisite said sarcastically. He turned and looked toward a supposedly empty spot along the tree line and started to walk away from the three other senshi. "Now, if you'll excuse me…"

From her hiding place overlooking the clearing, Ami realized much of what had occurred. She and Usagi, along with Luna, had reasoned that the Dark Kingdom would find out that Sailor Moon was Princess Serenity. As she and her fellow senshi congregated in the park, the princess was all alone and completely vulnerable. They had no way to defend her. That much she had already known. However, Zoisite had shown up to the park at _exactly_ the time that Usagi was to arrive. At the same time, Kunzite supposedly was in contact with their princess, which actually meant he was going up against Usagi. But the thing that suddenly worried Ami was the implication that arose from the data she had collected in her mind. Zoisite crashing their secret meeting and doing so at the perfect moment meant he knew when and where it was taking place ahead of time. If he knew of the meeting, he might know a lot more about them than they realized. His previous comments implied that he knew about the falling out between Usagi and the other senshi. She couldn't fathom how he could know about that, but even that possibility didn't immediately frighten her. The thing she feared most was that he, and the rest of the Dark Kingdom, knew of the senshi's real identities, particularly Usagi's.

"Hello, _Ami_," Zoisite whispered into the water senshi's ear, emphasizing her real name.

Ami froze in terror as she noticed that, despite her best attempts to hide, she found herself looking face-to-face at Zoisite. Not only that, but he confirmed right there her one remaining and most terrifying suspicion. Before she could do anything, he grabbed her by one arm and pushed her out of the hiding spot into the middle of the clearing. He kept her arm pinned behind her with one hand while he held a small, pointy black crystal with the other. The crystal started to glow dark blue as he held it closer and closer to Ami. Suddenly, he emphatically jammed the pointy end of the crystal into her stomach, causing the blue-haired girl to scream violently and the others to cry out in fear and anger. Despite her immense pain, Ami was cognizant enough to realize something was not quite right. He jammed the crystal into her the same way someone would stab another person with a knife, but there was no blood, and soon there was no crystal either.

"If all of you were paying attention, and I hope you were, you would notice that I just inserted a sapping stone into little Sailor Mercury here," Zoisite said with a wry smile on his lips.

The other three girls were dumbfounded by what just occurred, but Rei somehow understood and was absolutely terrified.

"What's a sapping stone?" Makoto asked in a trembling, hesitant voice.

"I'm glad you asked. It's a magical gem that is capable of removing the life force—the soul if you will—of a targeted person. Once their soul has been completely removed, they are effectively dead." That statement elicited a sharp gasp from the three other senshi. "Now, Mercury," he said while looking down at a quivering Ami, "I'm sure you're more interested in this part. The speed with which this happens is inversely proportional to the distance between the targeted person and the stone. Given that I just inserted it into your abdomen, I'll give you, oh, maybe thirty minutes at most before you die."

"Why the hell would you do such a thing to Sailor Mercury, you sick monster?" Rei yelled with incredible ferocity in her voice.

"Because I can," Zoisite sneered at her in response. He turned to the other two, his eyes primarily on Minako. "This stone can only be deactivated a select few. I am one of them, as are Kunzite and Queen Beryl. Of course, what are the chances of either of them coming to your rescue?" he asked in a voice dripping with sarcasm. "The last of that select few is someone you know very well… Sailor Moon. Now, do you want to reconsider your refusal to call her?"

—|1|**2**|—

Usagi stared through a set of narrowed, furious eyes at her nemesis for the evening. His presence absolutely stunned her. It wasn't that she didn't want to see him again—on the contrary, she couldn't wait to do so. But she did not want to see him on that exact day and at that precise time. She wanted the meeting to occur on her own accord, and with her friends backing her. All of them. But she quickly realized that it was a moot point. None of that mattered anymore. Her attention needed to be focused on the threat standing immediately before her. Only by defeating him could she even imagine salvaging the remainder of the evening. He was the one thing standing between her and recovering her precious friendships. And because of that, he was going to receive absolutely no mercy.

"It's very nice to see you again… _U- sa- gi_," he said with insincere adulation as the smirk on his face grew larger.

"Kunzite," Usagi replied in a strong, yet strangely calm, voice.

Mariko slowly turned her head toward Usagi. "Usagi-chan, who's Kunzite?" she asked with innocent confusion.

Kunzite slowly walked down the staircase that led to the second floor of the studio. Although he addressed Mariko, his eyes never left Usagi's. "Mariko, dear, I'm afraid I have some bad news for you. Your sweet Kousuke hasn't existed since this last Tuesday. He has been, oh, _dead_, for the past three days. But, don't worry, you'll have a chance to join him soon enough."

Mariko's entire world seemed to come to a crashing halt. Her Kousuke… dead? Since Tuesday? But she had seen him every single night. She was looking at him right then. Yet, the man she was looking at was not the Kousuke she had known and loved for years. Although his appearance was identical, his words, his manners, his _aura_ was completely different.

"What did you do to him?" Usagi asked in a demanding tone.

"Isn't it obvious? I took his soul and replaced all images of Kousuke in her memories with my own figure. That way, she obviously wouldn't be suspicious. Of course, it did help that Kousuke already looked a lot like me as well. A handsome man, if I do say so myself," Kunzite replied with a wry smile. "Anyway, now that I have you, I don't need to keep up this charade anymore."

With those words, the man who previously had worn black slacks and a silver, long-sleeved, button-down dress shirt suddenly flared a brilliant white. Moments later, he emerged from the light wearing his standard uniform of grey trousers, dark-grey jacket, and white cape. Mariko let loose a gasp and collapsed, unconscious, on the sofa upon witnessing the transformation. Her mind could not take any more of what was occurring in front of her. Kunzite slowly approached Usagi, the heels of his boots clicking on the hardwood floor, until he was just ten feet in front of the blonde.

"As I said, Kousuke is dead, or close enough to it. And I'm surprised that you didn't recognize poor Mariko here either. I would have expected you to realize that you've seen her once before."

"You say 'seen her once before…' What are you talking about?" Her calm demeanor was starting to crumble and the question carried a hint of her irritation at the leader of the Shitennou.

Kunzite shook his head and gave an almost imperceptible sigh. "Think back to the last time we've encountered one another."

"The last time… last time… Ah, I see now!" Her eyes reflexively widened in shock. "The woman you had captive, you're saying _she's_ Mariko?"

"Very good. You're far smarter than what your comrades believe," he said with his classic smirk. "Yes, that was her. I was in the process of stealing her soul like I did Kousuke's. But I teleported her away when you interrupted me. That ended up being the best thing I did, because it allowed her to find you, thus leading to tonight."

Usagi visibly deflated. She couldn't believe what she had heard. Mariko led her directly to Kunzite. So that meant, in her mind, that she was being deceived from the moment she met the strange brunette. "So, you're saying that all of this was a setup, a plan by you to capture me? None of this was real?" she asked warily and with disappointment evident in her voice.

"Well… now you're giving me too much credit. You're implying that Mariko's interest in you was false, and that all of this was an elaborate trap. I'm sad to say, for the sake of my own ego, that Mariko truly did like you, was even enamored by you, and absolutely wanted to photograph you for a very real photo book she was preparing to produce. All I did was direct her to a chance meeting with you and then sat back and waited for my opportunity."

Usagi smiled inwardly as she was relieved, if only for a brief moment, that Mariko's affection and motives were real. At the same time, she felt heartbroken that the woman was being used and that her lover had been killed. But, she had to put that behind her for the time being and return her focus to Kunzite.

"So I see… The amount of evil you possess never ceases to amaze me. Fortunately, I'm going to put a stop to your wickedness and to you, right now. You're not going to hurt any more people," she said with revived confidence.

"Those are the words I like to hear," he said mockingly. "Now, Usagi—or shall I say, Princess Serenity—I know you didn't come here alone. I can feel it." He briefly turned his eyes to the bag that she had laid down on the floor next to the sofa. "So, I'll give you this one chance to save Mariko and your precious little cat, along with some _other_ people you may find important, by asking you to come with me," he said in calmly and with utmost seriousness in his voice.

The assuredness she once possessed quickly evaporated from her. Yet, somehow, she found the strength to deny him yet again. "Never. I'll never go with you. I know what you plan to do to me and I'll never let that happen," she whispered.

"Hmm, you're a very brave girl. Brave and foolish. If you only knew what you were up against, you wouldn't be so impertinent," he said in a tone that almost sounded wistful. "Now it's too late for you, and too late for them." He took a slow step toward Usagi and the prone Mariko.

"It's never too late," she said softly. She closed her eyes and expelled a deep sigh before grasping the brooch from the bow of her school uniform and thrusting it high into the air. "Moon Prism Power, Make Up!" she yelled with extraordinary passion. After a bright flash of pinkish-white light, she stood before Kunzite as Sailor Moon.

"And so begins your pathetic attempt to fight back," he said with a smirk.

"I will defeat you," she said coldly.

"I'm sure you'll try." He stretched his hand out toward Mariko. Her body levitated into the air and was soon enveloped in a golden glow. Moments later, her body began to turn transparent as a ball of gold energy took its place. As soon as Mariko's body completely vaporized, the glowing ball shot toward Kunzite and melded with his body.

"What the hell did you just do to her?" Usagi shouted in utter fear.

"Where have I heard that question before?" he said sardonically. He smiled. "The last time I told you not to worry about it. This time, I'll be honest with you. That ball of light you just saw was Mariko's soul. Her soul is now a part of my body, as is Kousuke's. In this state they are effectively dead, but not quite. Now, you can fight me, and, rest assured, you _will_ fight me. I will leave you no choice in that matter. If you win, and win quickly enough, then you can go to your precious little meeting with your friends… or, shall I say, _ex_-friends."

Usagi flinched. _"How did he know about the meeting? How did he know about what's going on with the other girls?"_ she thought in despair.

Kunzite continued to speak in a tone that was partly derisive but mostly serious. "Now, the only way I'll let you go is if you were to defeat me. And to defeat me, you'll have to kill me. But, I'll have you know that if you kill me, you will also kill her, and then she very much _will_ be truly dead for her soul is intertwined with mine. You don't want _that_ on your conscience, do you?"

Usagi looked down at the sofa where Mariko once sat. She knew at that moment that the situation she was in had become far more serious than it ever was before. Kunzite was directly involving innocent people into his scheme to capture her, and it left her with two very awful routes. One was to kill Kunzite as swiftly as possible so she could get to the park and, hopefully, have an opportunity to reveal to the girls her true identity as their princess and regain their friendships. However, that entailed also killing Mariko, Kousuke, and who knew how many other people he had made disappear. Doing so would have gone against everything in which she ever believed. On the other hand, if she gave into his demands and went with him, she would have been effectively committing suicide and putting the entire planet at risk. And, even then, there was no guarantee that he still would not kill his captives. But, were those the only possible choices? She was the princess after all, and with being the princess of the Moon came tremendous healing power. She might be able to separate his soul from the others. If she could do that, then there would be no risk in killing the Shitennou leader, and depending on the attack, she might not even need to do that much. That '_better way_' just might exist after all. She looked up at Kunzite once again. Her eyes displayed a steely determination and calm.

"My conscience will be clear, and I _will_ defeat you," she said defiantly. The Moon Stick appeared in front of her and she grasped it tightly with her right hand.

"Very well. But, just so you know, I like my battles to be one-on-one, so I'm afraid we're going to have to get rid of a player here," he replied. He pointed his eyes at the bag and, without any warning, fired a bright-blue ball of energy directly at it.

"_Luna!"_ Usagi thought as she saw the attack approach the bag in what seemed like slow motion to her. Fortunately, the black cat sensed the impending danger and leaped from the bag moments before it was enveloped by the blast of energy. She landed next to Usagi and turned around to face Kunzite, giving him the meanest scowl she could produce.

"Kunzite! I'll have you know you cannot get rid of me that easily!" Luna yelled in anger. In her mind she knew she risked death if she stayed, but being with her princess was far more important than her own life.

"Oh, Luna. You were always too bold for your own good," Kunzite said in a playful tone, but a tone that revealed his deadly nature.

"Luna, what are you doing? Run away!" Usagi shouted in despair.

"Yes. Take your princess's advice. Run away, while you still can," Kunzite said derisively.

Luna looked up at Usagi. "You already know what you must do. I'll keep Kunzite occupied so you can do it."

"But Luna…"

Before Usagi could continue she saw Luna leap into the air and fly directly at Kunzite. He lifted his hand to fire another ball of energy at the cat. However, the streak of black was upon him before he could release the attack. Luna withdrew her claws and slashed furiously at the stunned general. Usagi also was momentarily stunned, but she soon realized exactly what was happening. Luna was buying precious time for her charge as best as she could in the only way she knew how. It was up to Usagi to take advantage of Luna's bravery.

Usagi closed her eyes and slipped into deep concentration. Her body was swathed in pink light as she drew forth the energy she needed to successfully achieve her goal of defeating Kunzite without killing the attached souls. She knew she could do so with the direct use of the Silver Crystal, but in doing so she would sacrifice her life. The only other attack in her possession that was powerful enough to heal an enemy like him was Moon Healing Escalation. However, just using the attack against him under normal circumstances would have been more difficult than using it against youma-possessed humans. The special situation she was in made it even more harrowing, as a wrong move or failure to supply enough energy for the attack would have been disastrous.

"_Get off me, you goddamned cat!_" Kunzite yelled ferociously as Luna continued to leap and slash at him. He was amazed that the little feline had far more spirit and offensive capability than many of the Dark Kingdom's youmas. By then, Luna was effectively nothing more than dark blur that orbited the man, leaving several deep scratches all over him in her wake. Unfortunately, being a small cat, her energy was far from limitless, and soon she found herself exhausted and vulnerable. She made her last pass at him and landed in a heap on the other side of him from where Usagi stood. She did everything she could do to allow Usagi to prepare her attack. At that moment, she hoped that it wasn't all in vain.

Kunzite turned to look at the fatigued Luna with narrowed eyes full of rage. His uniform was ripped in several places and, by some stroke of luck, she managed to draw blood. That was a severe embarrassment to him, and she was going to pay dearly for that.

"I hope you had your fun, Luna, because now your soul belongs to me," he said flatly but an overtone of fury. He raised his arm and pointed his hand at Luna. She froze, knowing she didn't have the strength to even crawl away from the impending attack.

"Stop right there, Kunzite!" Usagi shouted in a low-pitched, authoritative voice.

That change in tone piqued his interest, and he slowly turned his head to gaze at the girl. He was intrigued and, honestly, somewhat frightened by what he saw. The young senshi stood with her arm extended upward, raising the Moon Stick high into the air. Her body glowed faintly pink, whereas the Moon Stick emitted a bright white light. It was unlike anything either one of them had ever seen before.

"_Moon Healing Escalation!_" she slowly yelled. With that incantation she slowly moved the wand downward in front of her in a sweeping circular motion. When she completed the movement, her Silver Crystal—suspended in the middle of the wand—released a tremendous flash of pink and white light. Several pink balls of energy then flowed from the wand and slammed directly into Kunzite.

Although knowing exactly what was coming at him and bracing himself or the impact, the ferocity and the raw power behind the attack was far greater than he ever imagined. For a few agonizing seconds, he could feel the souls of the various people he had stolen separate from his own and begin to leave his body. The evilness and hatred within his soul started to fade with the purifying effect of the Silver Crystal's light. However, in that very same moment, he felt a jolt of dark energy enter his body, and soon he felt rejuvenated. It was energy that could only have come directly from Queen Metalia. That meant Queen Beryl was actively aware of his situation and knew he needed the assistance before he succumbed to the attack. It also meant that Sailor Moon was more than powerful enough to kill him in a single strike if she was given the opportunity. He vowed that she wouldn't have another chance at that again.

The last pink ball of energy impacted Kunzite. When the blinding light of the attack subsided, Usagi was flabbergasted to see her nemesis standing before her apparently unharmed. As far as she knew she performed the attack properly. He should have been purified. The souls he had stolen should have been detached from his body and returned to their rightful owners. The entire battle should have been over right then and there. Instead, to her chagrin, it was only just beginning. And it was going to get a whole lot worse.

"Princess, let me be the first to say that I'm truly awed by the power you wield," Kunzite said with complete sincerity. He gazed directly into Usagi's widened eyes and spoke with utter seriousness and increasing harshness. "However, it is plainly obvious you underestimate our own power. As a word of advice: from now on, if you're going to try to purify me instead of kill me, make sure to finish the job." As if to emphasize his point, he immediately turned to Luna with an outstretched arm and, without making any witty or sarcastic comments, sent a blast of blue energy at the helpless cat. A second later, Luna's soul was released from her body, soon to join the others that he had taken.

"_Luna!_" Usagi screamed in agony at the loss of her loyal advisor and friend. She dropped to her knees as tears involuntarily welled in her eyes.

"As I said, Princess, I prefer my duels to be one-on-one," he said coldly. At that moment, he felt a telepathic message enter his mind. He closed his eyes and thought of the reply, which he soon sent by the same method of telepathy, his body glowing pale turquoise as he did so. He then reached into the breast pocket of his jacket and pulled out a gold pocket watch. A wry smile appeared on his face as he glanced at the timepiece. He returned the watch to his pocket and turned an ice-cold glare to Usagi.

"Get up, Princess. I know you're no longer weak. I know you're not a crybaby anymore. So, get up and fight me."

Usagi continued to look down at the floor. She certainly was still despondent with the loss of Luna, but her tears had since ceased. No, it was not the time to cry. That time would come soon enough. Instead, she was concentrating on what she was going to do. She knew she couldn't make another attempt at healing Kunzite so soon after her previous attack. She was too drained in energy for that. However, the type of energy she lacked was magical energy. Any attack greater than Moon Tiara Action would have lacked the power to do much good. However, she had plenty of stamina remaining, as Luna's training sessions had improved her physical skills immensely. As she sat there on the floor, she contemplated how best to put those skills to use. She knew that this new strategy would take far longer and thus make her arrival in the park occur much later than she desired. Every second she was stuck in the studio meant a shrinking opportunity to recover her friendships as she and Ami had planned. But, until her magical energy reserves were restored, she had no other way.

"I said get up!" he yelled as he stomped toward her.

Usagi waited until he was within a few feet of her before looking up at him with narrowed eyes that held within them an unfamiliar gleam. "Be careful what you wish for, Kunzite," she said with unusual calmness. She then pushed herself up from the floor as quickly as she could, swinging her legs out in front of her in as she flipped backward. In the process, her right foot caught him directly under the jaw, jarring him and knocking him back a few steps.

He put a hand to his lips and felt the blood streaming down from his mouth. He turned a scowl toward the pigtailed blonde. "You managed to get a lucky hit on me. I won't allow that to happen again," he said frostily. He lifted his arm to send an energy blast, the same kind that stole Mariko's and Luna's souls, toward her. To his vexation, she was upon him once again the moment he lifted his arm, this time with a kick to the midsection. He doubled over in pain. _"How is this girl so damned fast?"_ he asked himself.

"_Wow! I managed to get two hits on him!"_ Usagi thought in amazement, although she made sure to hide that emotion from her face. _"Let's see if I can get a third while he's still recovering."_

She ran at him once again and furiously swung her leg out at him to strike him in the head. However, this time he was prepared for the attack. As her foot neared his face he grasped her ankle and, using her own momentum against her, turned and launched her into the side of one of the sofas at the other end of the studio. Her head smacked against the back of the sofa—the area not covered in soft cushions—and her entire body slumped to the ground. She wasn't knocked out, but her vision was impaired by the dark spots that floated in her eyes after the impact and she was rendered dizzy. She panted heavily as she struggled to push herself up from the floor before he could attack her, but she could only manage to make it to her knees. The ever-louder clicks of heels against hardwood floor behind her warned her that her nemesis was getting closer. She did the only thing she could think of at the time. She grabbed the tiara from her head, thus turning it into a glowing gold disc, and held it in her hands just below her stomach. She didn't have the energy or time to charge it, but that wasn't necessarily her plan.

Kunzite slowly walked toward the kneeled senshi until he was a few feet away from her. The bleeding in his mouth had subsided, but he still felt the sting from the kick to his ribcage just above his solar plexus. He was lucky her foot didn't land a little bit lower, or else he would still be lying on the ground gasping for air. He extended his arm at her once again, prepared to send forth a devastating blast. She was still hunched over and apparently took no notice of his presence. That brought a smirk to his lips. The ball of energy formed in his hand, and he was about to release it when he felt a tremendous pain in his stomach that shot throughout his entire body. His energy attack faded and he keeled over in agony. He managed to look up and see her with the tiara in her hand, and he immediately knew with what attack he had been struck. Unfortunately for him, that time she didn't miss his solar plexus. He knew that, for a few moments, he would be quite vulnerable.

Usagi finally managed to pull herself up from the floor and stand on her feet. She had an amazing opportunity right in front of her and she was not about to let it go to waste. Despite her latent wooziness from hitting her head, she found the strength to run up to Kunzite and kick him as hard as she could in side of the head. The strike caused the man to fly sideways to the floor and writhe in even more pain. However, his palpable agony meant that she clearly had failed to knock him out, which meant that she would have only a short amount of time before he recovered. She ran, looking for some place to hide and recharge her store of magical energy. She saw stairs to her right and the door leading to the rear garden directly ahead. The door was the first thing that came to her mind. One part of her mind was thinking of escape, leaving the studio and running to the park as quickly as she could. Being Sailor Moon would ensure that it only took her mere minutes as she ran much faster and could also leap from building to building. However, if she escaped, she risked the lives of Luna and Mariko among many others. Kunzite held their souls in her possession. He could decide as retribution to destroy them right then and there, ensuring no chance of their revival. It was a painful choice, but she decided that the lives of innocent people were more valuable at that moment. So, she leaped up the stairs and ran into one of the second-floor rooms as quickly, yet as silently as she could manage. It wasn't silent enough.

The strike to Kunzite's head left him momentarily dazed and in tremendous pain. Yet, he was able to hear Usagi run up the stairs and open one of the doors on the second floor. He smirked. _"If she knew what I know, she wouldn't have stayed around,"_ he thought. A brief infusion of energy from Queen Metalia was more than sufficient to clear his head of dizziness and restore his strength. He pushed himself to his feet and slowly walked up the stairs. There were six rooms on that floor, and he didn't know exactly which one she occupied, but it wouldn't be difficult to flush her out. Besides, as long as he had her trapped, he didn't really have to do anything at all but ensure she didn't somehow leave the second floor. He pulled out his pocket watch. _"If everything went well on his end, then right… _now_ I should have thirty minutes to keep our little princess occupied,"_ he thought, taking specific note of the time. He returned the timepiece to his pocket and, with a sigh, leaned against the wall and plotted in his mind his next course of action.


	21. The True Power of Teamwork

**Chapter 21: The True Power of Teamwork**

Minako, Rei, and Makoto, in their guises as Sailors Venus, Mars, and Jupiter, were caught in a rather precarious situation with no easy solution in sight. Granted, that was a typical _modus operandi_ for them, given their roles as warriors and defenders of the Earth against evil, but this was an especially difficult case. One of their own was sprawled along the ground before them, writing in ever-increasing pain in a desperate and failing attempt to counteract the soul-sapping stone that was implanted within her. Zoisite, the perpetrator responsible for the intense suffering Ami was forced to endure, hovered above the blue-haired girl with a wicked smirk across his lips. He never was one to play fair, and under different circumstances he would have been the first to admit that very fact. But, even for him, this was particularly cruel. The other three girls would be forced to watch their compatriot die a slow and painful death, and they had no way to prevent it. No way save one. And the option he gave them was one that two of the girls did not want to use for a very good reason, given what they knew and what they were told. The last girl had a very different reason for her opposition.

Now, under most situations the girls would have had absolutely no reason to trust anything their enemy said. Agents of the Dark Kingdom, when under their best behavior, were sneaky and underhanded, and none of them were against telling lies to further their own agenda. So, there was no reason for the senshi to abandon their suspicion of their nemesis that evening. Yet, for them to save their friend and fellow senshi, they would have to believe Zoisite that night. They would have to believe everything he said about the nature of the sapping stone as well as everything he said about how to stop the cursed rock from killing its victim. According to the youngest member of the Shitennou, there were only a few people with the power to reverse the effects of the stone and remove it from Ami's body. One of those was Zoisite himself, and given his role in placing the stone there in the first place, he was unlikely to change his mind and remove it. Another was Queen Beryl, though she was too far away from the situation to do anything about it and, even if she were standing immediately next to Ami, would have only expressed great joy at the water senshi's agony. Kunzite was a third person capable of stopping the activity of the sapping stone, but he was busy fighting the fourth person capable of ceasing the effects of the stone. Although the girls, save the one unable to speak at the moment, were convinced there were two more people able to save their friend, in reality there was only one. That last person was Sailor Moon, and she was the person that Zoisite insisted they call.

His request—actually, it was more of a demand—caused a lot of consternation and conflict between the three girls. That conflict led to a brief and rather heated discussion.

"Now, do you want to reconsider your refusal to call her?" Zoisite asked impatiently.

"Well…" Minako started. She was the leader, unambiguously by her actions preceding the ill-fated meeting that evening, as well as by tradition. She knew what needed to be done to save Ami and the tremendous risks involved with that decision. What she didn't know was how rapidly her control of her fellow senshi in the face of the enemy was collapsing, until it was too late. And, as soon as she started to speak, it had become too late.

"Venus, you are not about to call Sailor Moon over, are you?" Makoto asked anxiously.

"I… I have no real choice," Minako replied wistfully. "If I don't then Mercury will die, and we don't have much time."

"But, who's going to help protect the princess? You heard what Zoisite said, right? Kunzite has found the princess," Makoto said, the volume of her voice gradually rising.

"Of course I heard him. But, unless you have a better idea, then I'm forced to say we're out of options. We have to do something to save Mercury."

Makoto took a few steps toward Minako and stared directly into the blonde's downcast royal blue eyes. "It pains me to say this, as Mercury is a dear friend to me as she is to all of us, but our priority is the princess, not any of us," she said with a somewhat dejected tone. It was utter torture for her to say those words and to imply that they should sacrifice Ami. She looked up into the sky as if searching for any sort of answer. "Maybe if we can defeat Zoisite, we can take Ami to wherever Sailor Moon and the Princess are, help Sailor Moon defeat Kunzite, then have her heal Mercury," she said softly and without much confidence. It was the longest of long shots, after all.

Minako just shook her head slowly in reply. "We can't even defeat this youma by ourselves. Mercury would be dead before we have a chance to beat Zoisite," she said gloomily.

Rei, who was standing nearby with her arms crossed, huffed loudly. "Heh. I say go ahead and call the bitch over. It can't hurt. She probably failed miserably against Kunzite, knowing how utterly useless she is. And that's assuming she didn't just sit there and cry the whole goddamn time," she said contemptuously.

That comment shook Minako from her dejection and instead cast her emotions toward anger. She walked up to Rei and grabbed her arm, much like she did minutes before. "What did I tell you about insulting one of our own in front of our enemies?" she demanded in a fierce whisper.

Rei forcefully dropped her arm, causing it to slip from Minako's grasp. "One of our _own_? That's the funniest thing I've heard in a long time, coming from _your_ mouth."

"Yes, she _is_ one of our own," Minako said forcefully. "She might not have taken the pledge like we have, but she's a senshi just like us. And if Zoisite isn't lying to us about all of this in the first place, then Sailor Moon is the _only_ one of us actually in a position to save our princess."

"Which is exactly why I think we _can't_ call her over here," Makoto said. "If she leaves, then our princess is as good as screwed."

"You guys have amazing faith in her given what she's done over the past several weeks and months," Rei said with palpable irritation. "She's done nothing to prove that she can handle even the simplest youma on her own, and now you're saying she's good to go up against the leader of the Shitennou by herself? Please…"

"She's _there_, and we're _here_. We have to trust that she's able to do something to help the princess," Minako said determinedly.

"Trust? _Trust?_ She was the one who stole the damned crystal in the first place! If it wasn't for her deceitfulness, we wouldn't be in this mess!" Rei shouted in fury, her hands balled up in fists beside her trembling body.

Minako stepped back from Rei and sighed deeply, her body hunching over slightly as she exhaled. The raven-haired senshi had a point. It really was Usagi who had caused all of their troubles. It was she who had taken the crystal from the princess, leaving her vulnerable. She did say she was going to voluntarily return the crystal, but she didn't show up. Zoisite and his youmas did instead. And how did he even know they were having the meeting at that place and at that time? How did Usagi know where the princess was? How did Kunzite find out, for that matter? Maybe… It was a damning thought to attribute to one of their senshi, but everything was just too strange to be coincidence.

"_But, Usagi would never do something as terrible as that… right?"_ Minako pondered as she tried to comprehend all the thoughts swimming through her mind. _"She did… she did try to kill Rei, though. And even though she was the one to ultimately destroy the youmas, she never made our fights easy. But this… this would be a new low for her."_

"I know… I know I'm not one to defend the things she's done to us, but I think we need to have some faith in her, if only for this one time. Besides, she clearly is trying to make amends, calling this meeting and everything," Makoto said as she slowly walked toward Rei.

"How do you know that? How can you just blindly go and trust her like that?" Rei replied angrily as she snapped her head around to glare at Makoto. The fury in her eyes was beyond obvious. "If that bitch had her way I wouldn't be around right now. Remember that!"

A light groan emanated from the ground. That cry was from a mostly unconscious Ami. It reminded the girls that they didn't have much time and they couldn't spend what few precious moments they had bickering about tangentially related subjects. They had to come to a decision, and fast. Fortunately—or unfortunately, depending on one's perspective—Zoisite was about to deliver some news that made their decision much easier. That is, he would do so as soon as he could recover from the pure comedy that was presented before him courtesy of the three senshi.

"Very good, girls, very good," he said while laughing heartily, stunning the girls who either had forgotten he was still there or had completely ignored his presence that whole time. "I could listen to this all day as I find it absolutely _hilarious_, but, unfortunately, I have other things to do. But, if you'll allow me, I can probably help you come to a decision much faster," he said with faux playfulness.

"How so?" Minako replied incredulously.

"While you girls were having your nice little chat I was checking up on Kunzite to see if he managed to, you know, capture your little princess. Seems Sailor Moon was a bit more effective than any of us thought—" he said while directing a pointed glance toward Rei— "and the princess managed to escape. I don't know how he managed that but… he just set us back a few days. No matter."

"Why should we believe you?" Minako replied.

Zoisite pulled the gold watch from his jacket pocket and looked at it with a smirk on his lips. "My, my, it's amazing how time flies when you're having so much fun," he said tauntingly. "Anyway, I would love to just kill you all with the snap of my fingers, but where's the fun in that? No, I actually want to _enjoy_ my job. That's why I'm requesting you call Sailor Moon who, I'll remind you once again, happens to be free at the moment. Well, free from protecting the princess, at least. You can believe or not believe me if you want, but if you care one iota about your little friend here then you should seriously consider what I say."

The three senshi looked at one another, Minako and Makoto with concerned faces and Rei with no obvious expression one way or the other.

"I guess… if that's true, then maybe we should call her," Makoto said in a resigned tone as she stared at the ground.

Minako turned to look at Rei. "Do you have any objections?"

"Heh. No. Why would I?" Rei said in an attempt to sound nonchalant, though anger was still plainly evident.

Minako sighed. That was good enough for her. She took out her communicator and tapped the picture of Usagi that appeared along the right side of the screen. After what she interpreted to be a frighteningly long and unnecessary pause, the communicator beeped.

"_I hope this works. For Ami's sake, I hope this works,"_ she said to herself.

—|1|**2**|3|4|—

Usagi pushed herself to her feet and opened her eyes. At least, she thought she did. But, even though she was sure she had made the physical motion of lifting her eyelids, she could still only see darkness. She had run as quickly as she could into one of the six rooms on the second floor after another close call with Kunzite, pulled the door to as quietly as she could, and slumped onto the ground while burying her knees into her chest. That was where she remained in utter silence, save the sound of her own breathing, for several minutes as she sat there attempting to recoup as much magical energy as she could. She had wished to escape from his clutches, but as she turned her head about she realized she was completely lost in more ways than one. Her foot slowly inched forward as she took one tentative step deeper into the room. She had no idea what kind of room she was in or what obstacles laid in her path for her to trip over in her blindness. She called forth her Moon Stick and grasped it loosely, almost reluctantly, and held it in front of her. The magical wand was a very useful instrument in its own right, but with the Silver Crystal attached it became far more useful. It allowed her to perform her more powerful attack in Moon Twilight Flash as well as enhanced the effect of Moon Healing Escalation. However, it could also be used for somewhat more mundane purposes, as she was about to reveal.

"Silver Crystal Illumination," Usagi whispered, so as not to make her presence known to a very agitated Kunzite. The moment she spoke those words the crystal began to light up. But, unlike in previous uses, the intensity of its emission was very low, producing a soft white glow. Under normal circumstances, the sudden presence of even a small amount of light after spending several minutes in the dark would have induced severe pain in her eyes, but the healing effects of the crystal mitigated the suffering. She did have her worries, however, as using the Moon Stick and crystal in that manner required a small amount of magical energy. It wasn't enough to further deplete her store, but it slowed the rate at which her energy supply was replenished, and she needed as much energy as she could as quickly as she could get it. However, she also needed to know where she was and what was around her.

She gazed around at her immediate surroundings and saw a small desk and chair in one corner of the room, another door to her right, and several shelves full of books lining the remainder of the walls. An ornate rug covered most of the otherwise cold hardwood floor. She took a few more careful steps toward the rug, knowing it was far safer there as the fabric would muffle the sounds from her boots' heels as she walked. Her eyes fell onto the desk once again. She saw a few different cameras, various lenses, lens filters, and a laptop computer sitting on the desk. By itself it was an awe-inspiring collection of equipment, yet it was only a fraction of the total gear that Mariko and Azusa owned. Her hand reached out to touch one of the cameras when she felt buzzing and then heard a small beep.

"_No… not now…"_ Usagi thought as she retrieved her communicator. She feared that even the tiny sound from the device would alert Kunzite to her location. At the same time, if Ami were calling her, then something serious had to have happened while they were waiting for her. After some deliberation, she decided she would answer the call, but she would try to be as quiet in doing so as possible. She crouched underneath the desk, hoping the distance between her and the door was sufficient to dampen any sounds and placed the Moon Stick in her lap, eerily illuminating her face from below. She lightly tapped the button and then gasped. Who she saw on the other end completely shocked her.

"Venus…!" Usagi said in a hushed exclamation. On her screen she saw Minako in her Sailor Venus garb with a desolate look on her face and in her eyes. She took a deep breath to calm herself before speaking again. "What's going on?" she asked concernedly in a much quieter whisper.

"Sailor Moon, where are you?" Minako asked hurriedly.

"I'm in a photo studio on the other side of town. I was trying to get to the park but Kunzite got in my way."

"Yeah, we heard about that, actually." Minako paused for a few moments. "Is the princess okay?"

Usagi sighed. She knew the plan and that the girls had expected her to show up several minutes ago. As such, they didn't yet discover that she was the princess. Maybe if she could deal with Kunzite quickly enough, she could rush over to the park and reveal her true identity to them before they all gave up on her. She barely heard several light clicks from the other side of the door but the sounds soon faded as they passed by.

"Yes, the princess is fine," she said softly with slight dejection in her voice. She saw Minako's eyes light up slightly when she said that.

"That's good news." Minako's eyes pointed at the ground for a few moments and narrowed once again. "I called you because it seems you're the only person who could help us," she said flatly.

"Venus, I'm glad that—"

"Don't misunderstand me. We still don't trust you. I… I still don't trust you. You have a long way to go before you've proven yourself to us and regained our trust," Minako said firmly. Usagi winced. She desperately needed to get to the park sooner, rather than later, if she wanted to maintain any hope of dissuading the girls from that mindset. "Anyway, it appears Zoisite found us in the park and ambushed us while we were waiting. He attacked Mercury with some soul-sapping stone and said she only had about thirty minutes to live. He also said you were the only one who could remove the stone and save her."

"_Poor Ami… Why would Zoisite do such a thing to her?"_ Usagi pondered sadly as she listened to Minako's description of the attack on her friend.

"So, could you make it to the park soon, preferably in the next ten or fifteen minutes?" Minako asked.

"I will try to get there as quickly as I can. I promise," Usagi whispered with utmost determination. She saw Minako nod her head slightly in acknowledgement.

It was at that moment her conversation with Minako came to a sudden and dramatic end, though her partner in the conversation would only see her speak and then the screen go dark. She saw the blue flash of light from the corner of her eye and immediately leaped from her position beneath the desk. In the process of ensuring she had a secure hold of her Moon Stick she dropped her communicator. As the ball of blue energy zoomed toward the desk, she knew she wouldn't be able to speak with Minako or any of the other senshi again until she arrived at the park. She tumbled out of the desk and collided hard with one of the shelves, knocking some of the books to the floor.

"Did you miss me?" Kunzite said with his lips pulled into an evil smirk. He raised his hands to fire his energy attack at the prone Usagi.

"Not at all, Kunzite," she said coldly as she pushed herself to her feet. She slowly moved to her left, her hand feeling along the wall for the door handle she knew was behind her. Her other hand firmly grasped the Moon Stick.

"Well, that's too bad. It's a shame that you have to leave so soon, Princess. We were just getting to know each other."

"I think we're well enough acquaint—AAAARGH!" She was about to reach the door handle when another blast of energy from his palm raced toward her, forcing her to dive to the floor.

"You know I'm not going to let you leave anytime soon," he said frostily, his eyes narrowing as he stared at her. He then reached down to grab the girl by the back of her collar. That ended up being a painful mistake. She slammed the butt end of her Moon Stick as hard as she could onto his foot, causing him to shuffle backwards in pain.

"You cannot keep me here!" she yelled forcefully. She turned, pushed open the door, and proceeded to run into the next room, slamming the door behind her as she departed.

"Heh, you're not going to get away," he murmured under his breath. He then exited through the main door and turned down the hallway in pursuit of his prey. He walked slowly, savoring the fact that he knew she had very few options for escape.

Unfortunately for her, the next room happened to be a bathroom. That was the last place she wanted to be trapped with Kunzite on her tail. She saw there were doors in front and beside her as well as behind her. The loud clicks of boot heels on hardwood floor alerted her that he was walking down the main hallway and was about to be right on top of her. She glanced at the door leading to the hallway. She thought briefly about surprising him by rushing him right as he passed by, but a quick look at the door handle and hinges told her that was a very bad idea. The door opened inward, giving him early warning of her presence and making her a sitting duck. That left the door in front of her and the door behind her. If she continued going forward, she would continually be stalked by him. However, she figured he would also expect her to sneak back around behind him. She started to become frantic.

"_No. I can't panic right now. I have to stay calm. I have to stay calm,"_ she told herself. She turned her head around to look at each of the doors once again. Then, a novel idea struck her, bringing a smile to her lips. _"Maybe I can play with his expectations, and think I have just the way to do it."_

She slowly stepped forward and opened the door in front of her, then opened the door behind her. Then, she removed the tiara from her head and held the dimly glowing disc in her hand for a brief moment before tossing it into the room in front of her in such a way that it skipped along the ground. It bounded along the floor until it lightly tapped the back wall. She ensured she used as little of her magic as she could in the maneuver, instead relying on her physical throwing skills. A wide smile came to her lips as she realized she had made a perfect toss. After releasing the tiara, she crept into the corner of the bathroom that was right beside the door leading to that room, pulling the door to until there was only the smallest space between the door and frame. It was enough space for her to peek into the other room and see Kunzite.

"_Ah, there she goes,"_ he said to himself as he heard what he interpreted to be footsteps. He quickened his pace and walked to the pair of rooms at the far end of the hall, slowly opening the door to his left. Angry eyes scanned about the darkened room as he diligently searched for his quarry and yet found no sign of her. A slight glimmer of light along the base of the wall caught his eye. He looked down and saw, casually resting against the wall to his right, Usagi's gold tiara. He bent down and picked it up off the floor.

"_Very good. Now come here,"_ she thought, effectively willing the man to approach as she crouched once again in the corner of the bathroom. When she heard the tell-tale sounds of his boots as he walked by, she partially opened the door that led to the hallway. That was the last part of her trap. She was prepared for him if he went straight through to the bathroom, but she hoped he would instead come from the hallway as the door opened inward and effectively concealed her hiding spot, giving her an element of surprise. Her grip on the Moon Stick tightened and she grinned as she saw him hurriedly exit the room, as it appeared her plan was coming to fruition.

"Very clever, Princess, very clever," he said aloud softly but with clear malice as he first attempted to snap the tiara in half, but then quickly tossed it aside as he realized he couldn't waste too much time with such trivial things. That and the fact the tiara was practically indestructible. He pivoted around and briskly walked back into the hallway, coming to the junction between the hallway and the stairs before suddenly stopping. Something caught his attention to his right.

"_I know that door wasn't open when I passed by here the first time,"_ he thought as his eyes locked on the black gap in the pale yellow walls and white door. _"She couldn't have gone far. If she went down the stairs I would have heard her. Maybe…"_

He slowly pushed the door open as he walked into the bathroom. His dark reflection in the mirror above the sink momentarily caught his eye, but he soon ignored it. He took another step into the bathroom and looked to his right. The door was closed, so she couldn't have gone that way. A quick look to the left showed that the door to the room where he initially found her was open. He turned to walk into the office when he suddenly had a realization strike his mind. Unfortunately for him, he also had something else strike him at the exact same time.

Usagi's attempt to conserve her magical energy forced her to put the Moon Stick to use once again in a more mundane manner. As far as wands went, it was an awkwardly shaped thing: a large gold crescent moon atop a slim pink handle. To a layman's eyes, the wand would appear similar to be a sickle with the bottom section of the blade extending too far. It would also appear to such a person to be completely unbalanced, a top-heavy stick with the center of balance expected somewhere near the middle of the crescent. However, the handle was shaped to fit perfectly within her hands and, more importantly, was weighted just right to allow her to twirl and move the wand about with relative ease. That weighting was important as the gold crescent moon, at the base of which her Silver Crystal was docked, was a fairly hefty amalgamation of metals that gave it strength and hardness. The identities of the metals that had to be combined and their proportions to form the wand was lost during the tumult that followed the fall of the Silver Millennium and, unfortunately for modern humanity, had yet to be rediscovered. The crescent in particular was a combination of that alloy and another, the mixture of the two giving it its unique gold color. That combination of metals was critical as it allowed the crescent shape of the wand to not only represent the Moon and the Silver Millennium during battle, but it also allowed it to be a singular curved blade that was incredibly sharp with tips that were remarkably pointy. In other words, the Moon Stick was not just a device for dispensing magical attacks at foes. It was a pretty nasty weapon that made an enemy instantly regret getting too close to whoever wielded it. It rarely was used in that manner since its creation thousands of years ago by the second Queen Selenity. But, that evening, it was almost used in that manner by the one who would have become the fifth Queen Serenity.

_Almost_. She saw that her trap had worked to perfection and that Kunzite was standing with his back to her, completely unaware of her existence. Effectively all she had to do was charge at him with the Moon Stick and he would be no more. She had half the mind to do so as well, but she remembered one vital detail. If she had slain the leader of the Shittenou, she also would have killed her friend and advisor in Luna, the eccentric but otherwise lovely photographer Mariko, Mariko's dearest boyfriend Kousuke, and an unknown number more innocent people. However, she could not let the opportunity go to waste. She couldn't kill him, but she could sure knock him out for just long enough for her to escape. The Moon Stick was heavy, a facet of the device that frequently annoyed her, but at that precise moment she loved its weightiness. She loved it even more as she rushed out from her hiding spot, wand held high above her head, jumped as high as she could, and brought the blunt end of the crescent down as swiftly as she could on his head. He immediately collapsed to the floor in a heap.

"Got you!" she exclaimed cheerfully as she saw his slumping body. She pushed open the door to the other room and grabbed her tiara from the floor. She then took off running from that room to the hallway and the staircase. She didn't even bother taking one last look back to admire her handiwork. Her mind contained a singular goal: get to the park and to Ami. She descended the stairs two at a time and then rushed to the front door. The fact that she was dressed as Sailor Moon and was rushing into a public street did not faze her one bit. None of the bystanders would see more than a fleeting glimpse of her anyway as she planned to hop to the roof of the building as soon as she exited. Nobody ever seemed to check rooftops anyway.

She pushed the glass door open and was utterly astounded by what she saw in front of her. The street was completely empty of all cars, and the sidewalks were devoid of any people. She stopped dead in her tracks. It was blatantly obvious something was very, very wrong, and either it was an illusion or some kind of deception by the Dark Kingdom, or a lot of people suddenly disappeared and she completely failed to notice or save them. She opted for the former explanation, and she stood still in an attempt to concentrate on the source of the artifice. An invisible but thick cloud of dark, evil energy seemed to completely envelop her, causing her to stumble backward a few steps. She attempted push further away from the studio, but every step led to increasingly painful exposure to the negative energy, and after only a few feet she was forced to turn back. The trek to the park would have to wait until she found a way to destroy the illusion and rid the area of the dark energy. Reluctantly, she stepped back into what she considered the relative safety of the studio.

—|1|2|**3**|4|—

"Oh, good! So you finally called her. I'm happy for you all, as it seems that poor little Sailor Mercury may finally be saved," Zoisite said sarcastically with his lips pulled into a vile smirk. His eyes casually studied the remaining three senshi.

Minako felt her fingers almost unconsciously go weak and lose their grip of the communicator as soon as she saw the screen go dark. The device slipped from her hand and landed with a soft thud on the mottled grass and slightly damp soil. It was not something she wanted to do, but it was her last and only choice. She didn't fully trust Usagi. None of them did. But for one evening she had to place her faith in her erstwhile friend and hope that she would arrive on time for once. She thought back to the last time she had seen Usagi in person. She revisited in her mind that scene from over a week ago, in that very park, on a dark and cloudy evening, when the other senshi had finally given up on Usagi. She had also given up on the blonde, but her pathetic display of sorrow somehow managed to overcome her hardened heart. With some reluctance she had acquiesced to Usagi's sole request.

"_Consider this your one last chance, Usagi,"_ Minako said to herself. Her eyes narrowed slightly. _"I hope you succeed. I hope for Ami's sake, and your own sake, you succeed, for if you fail at this, I will never, ever forgive you."_

"So, with that out of the way, I think all we have to do now is await Sailor Moon's arrival. But I think it's too boring to just sit here, so let's have some fun," he said. He rubbed his hands together giddily as he stared at his three adversaries.

A harsh rumble emanating from the middle of the clearing caught the attention of all three girls. The youma, which was lying on the ground face down ever since Zoisite made his second appearance, pushed itself up to its feet with a fury. It turned around and locked its sickly yellow eyes on the three horrified senshi. The ferocity was plainly evident in the disgusting creature's face. It slowly raised its hand in preparation to send another devastating wave of energy at the horrified girls. They quickly closed their eyes and braced themselves for the intense pain they anticipated would come at any second. A sense of utter surprise enveloped them a few seconds later when they realized that nothing had happened. They opened their eyes and were stunned to see the youma completely frozen in place.

"Wait!" Zoisite exclaimed. His arm was extended in the direction of the youma, and it was clear that he was the one who had stopped its attack. He closed his eyes turned his head down, slowly shaking it side to side. "I'm going about it all wrong. With you girls in your state, and _especially_ Mercury in her condition, I can't have this thing going around blasting you to smithereens. That's just not very sporting of me." He looked up at the girls once again, who by now were just astounded by what they were witnessing.

"_Is Zoisite… actually sympathizing with us?" _Makoto pondered as she looked at the youngest Shitennou member with bewilderment in her widened eyes.

A bright yellow light captured the attention of the girls. That intense light originated from the youma that was suspended a few feet in the air. They gasped as the black wings on the beast's back, the very objects that gave the youma its power, suddenly vaporized. The glow surrounding the youma gradually subsided as it slowly fell back down to earth.

"Yes, I just removed the magical talismans from my youma, so now you don't have to worry about any more painful energy blasts. That's great, right?" he said, following up with a smile that, had he not possessed the reputation he did, would have been considered genuine.

"You… you… _bastard!_" Makoto said, at first softly but with increasing intensity and rage in her voice. She knew, along with the other senshi, exactly what Zoisite had just done.

"Hey! I do something nice like remove your opponent's main attack and I get called names. How rude!" he said derisively. "Now, as I said before, I want to have some _fun_."

Although the youma no longer possessed the ability to send destructive energy blasts at the senshi, it was still extremely dangerous. Those massive arms could do some serious damage to anyone who strayed too close. So it was with absolute panic on their faces that the girls saw the youma charge toward the prone and completely defenseless Ami.

"Akuryo Taisan!" Rei shouted as she pulled an ofuda and threw it at the youma as hard as she could. She hoped it would be effective as she didn't have time to give her normal chant beforehand. The small, magically enchanted charm stuck fast to the youma's forehead, causing it to freeze in place as it struggled to rip the slip of paper from its face. Luckily for her and the other girls, it was unsuccessful.

"Supreme Thunder!"

"Venus Love-Me Chain!"

The combined attacks from Makoto and Minako scored direct hits on the massive youma. Makoto's lightning attack struck the beast right in the forehead, while Minako's beam crashed directly into its chest. They might as well have done nothing, however, as the thing appeared completely unfazed by their assault. The only obvious consequence of their effort was that the youma temporarily was intrigued by the presence of the two girls.

"That's right, come over here!" Minako yelled, jumping and waving her hands wildly in the air.

The youma decided not to comply. Once the effect of Rei's ofuda wore off, the hideous creature continued its rush toward the stricken Ami. By this time the youma was twenty feet away from its target.

"I'm not going to let you go any further!" Rei shouted. She pointed her clasped hands at the youma and released a gargantuan red fireball that completely enveloped the monster. However, that only served to slightly slow it down and enrage it more than it already was.

"_No_!" Minako shouted as she took off running for Ami as quickly as her feet could take her. The mottled green, brown, and red humanoid beast was five feet away from—and easily within striking distance of—its target when Minako reached the unconscious blue-haired senshi. She looked up with horror-filled eyes and saw the youma raise one of its massive arms in the air, its hand balled into a grotesque fist. There was no time for her to do anything else but the first thing that came to her mind, and even then she figured she had an equal chance of success or a quick, painless death. She grabbed Ami under both arms and yanked backwards, dragging her out of the way just as the youma's fist hit the ground. She yelped in surprise and fear as clods of dirt flew into her face, but she did not stop pulling her friend away from the youma.

Makoto watched with abject terror on her face and in her eyes as she saw Minako approach frightfully close to the immense creature. However, the sight of her leader acting so bravely emboldened the senshi of lightning. If Minako could be that courageous, why couldn't she? She was physically largest and strongest of the senshi and most gifted in close combat after all, and as such she shouldn't be so afraid of fighting in close quarters with the youma. At that moment, she decided to shelve her fear of the beast and her dread of what its considerable appendages might do to her. She had to be strong, not just for Ami but for all of them. She knew what she had to do, and with that knowledge she willed her long legs to propel her to where she absolutely needed to be.

The youma's deep yellow eyes were locked onto Ami's limp body as Minako continued in a futile attempt to drag the girl away from the monster. She had been pulling Ami around the clearing for a few hundred feet and the unsightly thing still was practically right on top of them. Zigzagging didn't work and only served to tire her faster. Her arms were already fatigued. Even though Ami was a small girl, the second shortest and by far the lightest of the five, she was still quite a bit of dead weight that had to be dragged across rough grass and dirt and occasional gravel. Minako's arms pleaded with her the only way they knew how, by sending frequent electrical signals along her nerves, up her spinal cord, and to her brain, which then interpreted those signals as intense and almost debilitating pain. Her mind at first attempted to ignore those cries but, inevitably, the pain won out. Soon, her legs joined in the chorus. It was only her willpower and her fear of what would happen if she failed that drove her onward and allowed her to endure the suffering of her limbs. But she knew fear and willpower alone were not enough, and soon, very soon, her body would give up despite what her mind desired.

_* WHAM *_

Minako's eyes widened as she saw the youma tumble forward and smack the ground hard enough to send a cloud of dust into the air. Its head missed Ami's feet by mere inches. They widened even further when she saw, crouched on top of the youma's back, an enraged Makoto. She wondered where the lightning senshi found the strength to topple something so large. Apparently, the youma was so fixated on Ami that it did not notice the running start that Makoto had garnered prior to launching herself at the thing. Her momentum was more than sufficient to achieve her desired goal of stopping the youma in its tracks. Surprised by the feat and yet undistracted from her ultimate goal, Minako continued to pull Ami's body about fifteen more feet before finally collapsing from exhaustion.

Rei saw Minako fall next to Ami's comatose form and sprinted over to the two of them, determined to protect both of them as well as she could from the youma. She did not have to do anything as of yet since Makoto was easily handling the beast herself.

Before the youma could fully lift itself from the ground, Makoto was upon it once again, harshly delivering the sturdy heel of a green boot directly to its gruesome face. The incredible strength behind that attack dazed the monster long enough for Makoto to take a few steps away from the youma, close to where Minako, Rei, and Ami were. She had no plans of running away, however. After taking a few steps away, she turned to face the youma and closed her eyes. Her body emitted a faint green glow as she concentrated as hard as she could on preparing her impending attack. A new and unfamiliar energy seemed to surge through her body, resulting in the combined sensation of curious pain and satisfaction. Without warning, the shadows along the ground disappeared, and much earlier than expected given that the sun had not fully set below the horizon. Instead, the sun was obscured by several thick and ominously dark clouds that billowed overhead. The air cackled with electricity as several bolts of lightning passed between the clouds. Makoto's glow intensified as the antenna extended from the jewel within her tiara. Words came to her mind, words she had never voiced before but for some reason she felt strongly compelled to speak.

"My guardian Jupiter! Brew a storm! Call the clouds! Bring down the lightning!" Makoto shouted with an unusually low timbre in her voice.

On cue the already grey clouds became even darker and several bolts of lightning shot down from the sky to collect around Makoto and her lightning rod. She opened her eyes at the exact same time the youma collected its senses. They were eyes that belonged to a completely different individual from the person the other girls knew as their friend and fellow senshi. The jade-green orbs were tightly narrowed, unwavering, and full of rage that was to be directed fully at the monstrous beast. The youma attempted to push itself from the ground and charge at her, but it was too late.

"Supreme Thunder Dragon!" Makoto yelled with a newfound fury. Unlike with her normal attack, several immense bolts of green lightning erupted from her fingers when she pointed them at the youma. The lightning then coalesced into the form of a colossal dragon that was many times larger than the beast it was sent to attack. The dragon fully engulfed the stunned youma, electrocuting it with wave after deadly wave of green electricity and causing the hideous being to release a cry of pain so loud that everyone, even Zoisite, was forced to cover their ears. The dragon soon dissipated and the beast collapsed to the ground once again, still alive but so weak it could not find any strength within its body to stand up, let alone attack any of the senshi. Makoto also collapsed in utter exhaustion, worn out from trying to control and store so much energy and then release it on target. She had given everything she had to weaken the youma. Now it was up to the others to finish it off.

Rei scrambled over to Makoto, a feat that was easy as she was only a few feet away from the group.

"Jupiter, are you okay?" Rei asked in concern.

"I'm fine. Don't worry about me. Let's finish this thing off before it wakes up again," Makoto said faintly. Despite her frailty the determined look remained in her eyes, and Rei knew that her friend would survive well enough.

Rei looked over at the youma. The monster was laying on its back with its eyes closed and its chest slowly rising up and down. Steam could be seen rising from its body. She then looked back at Minako. The blonde was halfway onto her feet, ignoring the pain shooting through her body with gritted teeth. A steely resolve shone in her eyes. Rei rushed over and looped an arm under Minako's to help her fully stand up and gain her balance. The two looked at each other.

"Venus…" Rei whispered cautiously. She was unsure if her leader had enough strength to continue fighting, but her concerns soon were assuaged.

"Let's finish this once and for all," Minako said with renewed vigor. She gave Rei a small smile before turning her gaze to the prone youma.

"I think my poor youma is finally about to meet its end, but no matter. I have plenty more," Zoisite murmured as he observed the spectacle that signaled the demise of the ugly beast. He felt nothing for it, as it was nothing more than a lowly pawn in his grand scheme. _"Hmm… I wonder how Kunzite is doing?"_ he then pondered as he repositioned himself on the distant branch upon which he sat.

Much like Makoto did moments before, Minako felt the appearance of a strange and wonderful energy she had never before experienced. Her entire body felt warm, but it felt very different from the physical pain associated with heat. No, it was more an emotional surge that overcame her and filled her body and soul. She unconsciously closed her eyes and smiled gently as the power and a peaceful sensation washed over her. Her body emitted a golden light that initially was a soft glow but gradually grew to blinding intensity. Directly in front of her, she could feel an even greater energy that seemed to pulsate in rhythm with her heartbeat. She intuitively reached outward with an open hand to touch the source of that immense energy, far more than she had ever wielded as either Sailor Venus or Sailor V. A gasp escaped her lips as her fingers encountered a solid object that floated in front of her. Her eyelids slowly lifted and the glistening royal-blue orbs caught sight of the source of that wonderful energy. It was in the shape of a small heart, no larger than a softball's diameter, hovering just in front of her chest and shining brilliantly in a constantly shifting array of colors. She held the item loosely in her one hand, which soon was joined by the other. The strange object left her in awe at its beauty, but at the same time it left her confused. Where did it come from, and what, if anything, was she supposed to do with it?

As soon as those questions crossed her conscious mind, her subconscious had already provided the answers. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the multicolored, heart-shaped object in her hands. Despite its solidity it was composed purely of energy, a devastatingly powerful energy that originated from her guardian planet. She soon realized that the heart was part of a brand new attack, one that involved her casting the heart at her opponent. And despite the immense power she already held in her hands, she knew the attack was capable of so much more, but only if she demanded it.

"My planet of love, Venus! Give me your power!" she yelled. The heart began to glow even more brightly and the frequency of the pulses accelerated as more energy poured into the object. A few seconds later, she knew it was sufficiently charged as the heart rapidly shifted across the entire spectrum of vibrant colors.

"Rolling Heart Vibration!" she shouted passionately as she pirouetted once and released the heart in the direction of the prone youma with a slight twist of her arms. That twist imparted a spinning motion on the heart, causing it to race toward the monster in a corkscrew motion. The energetic heart slammed into the youma with incredible velocity and force, instantly turning the beast into an enormous pile of light-brown dust. The youma that had tormented them so horrifically that evening finally was no more.

Zoisite leaped down from the branch and casually strolled to where the three girls stood and the where Ami lied motionless. He stopped about fifteen feet away from the group.

"It seems I may have underestimated you all ever so slightly," he said with his lips pulled into a small grin. "I'll keep that in mind for later on. Anyway, it looks like I have to go now."

"The _hell_ you do!" Makoto growled furiously. She charged at Zoisite with malicious intent, her hands curled into fists and raised to deliver devastating punches at her nemesis. However, he deftly avoided her strikes and, with a single raise of his hand, sent the brunette flying backwards toward the other girls. He then slipped his hand into his jacket pocket and removed the gold watch. A scowl momentarily appeared on his face but soon disappeared before he slid the timepiece back into his pocket.

"Anyway, all I wanted to say before I depart entirely too soon is that Mercury has about ten minutes left. For her sake, I certainly hope Sailor Moon arrives in time," he said with a dark chuckle at the end. He noticed the three pairs of furious eyes staring back at him. Before any of the bodies attached to those sets of eyes could lash out at the youngest of the Shitennou, he raised his right arm into the air and disappeared, leaving nothing more than a black cloud of smoke in his wake.

"Damnit!" Makoto yelled as she pounded her right fist into the palm of her other hand. "I so wanted a piece of—WOAH!"

The three girls were startled when Ami, who up to that point was completely motionless, started to convulse uncontrollably. Her arms and legs flailed wildly and her back involuntarily stiffened and arched itself upward and then relaxed without any set rhythm. The abruptness of the seizure alarmed the girls as they had no clue how to help their incapacitated friend.

"Ami-chan!" the three yelled almost in unison.

Rei, who was closest, tried to calm Ami from her seizure by wrapping her arms around her, but that ended up being a huge and painful mistake. An arm flew upward and hit her right under her nose, harshly knocking the raven-haired girl backward. She was lucky that it didn't break upon impact, but the sting of the sudden blow made her feel nauseous. A warm liquid that streamed down her face and occasionally into her mouth alerted her to the profuse nosebleed she had sustained. Interestingly, Ami's spasms had lasted for only a few seconds, but they were the first of several the hapless girls would see.

—|1|2|3|**4**|—

Kunzite slowly awoke from his stupor feeling thankful that he had available the astounding energy of Queen Metalia. He was unconscious for a full minute, which surprised him. That little girl could pack quite an amazing punch it seemed, and all of that was done without the use of any of her magic. Clearly, he had underestimated her. He didn't think of her as the dim, klutzy, weak, and utterly useless child the way her compatriots did. He knew just how graceful and powerful and intelligent she truly was—or so he thought. That evening demonstrated to him an even clearer picture of his opponent, one that absolutely frightened him. Certainly she could eliminate him, or heal him, at any time of her choosing with the assistance of the Silver Crystal. However, what stunned and terrified him was the fact she could kill him _without_ magic if he wasn't careful. He replayed the previous attack in his mind. If she wanted to, she could have turned her wand the other way and he would have been done for. He would not have known what had hit him. He smirked. The only thing that had kept him alive—and her within his clutches—was his hostages. Her greatest weakness was her unwillingness to kill innocent beings if she felt she could prevail otherwise. In fact, she would much rather risk defeat and her own death than the lives of civilians. He had no such weakness. To him, everything was fair game, and he was about to demonstrate that very fact to her.

He slowly pushed himself up from the hardwood floor. He knew at that time he didn't have to worry about her escaping, again thanks to Metalia's dark energy, so he could move rather leisurely. Once on his feet, he raised one of his arms away from his body, his palm pointed outward, and mumbled inaudibly. A blurry outline appeared in front of him of a humanoid being that was somewhat shorter than Kunzite. The more he spoke the clearer and more defined the figure became until the details of its figure became fully realized. It looked very much like a person and less similar to the youmas that the Dark Kingdom had dispatched previously. It looked like a human, a woman of about twenty years old with wavy blonde hair that fell to the middle of her back and stunningly fair and unblemished skin that was almost opalescent. It, or rather she, looked up at Kunzite with pale indigo eyes and a slightly bemused expression on her face. She possessed all the physical features of an exquisite if not exotically attractive young woman. Yet, despite all appearances, she was not at all human. Nor was she strictly a youma, as those were purely creations of the Dark Kingdom. She was one of the original servants of Metalia from a time long before the dark queen had arrived on Earth and convinced Beryl to overthrow the sovereign rulers of the Earth and declare war on the Silver Millennium. At this stage, she had achieved more of a leadership role within the Dark Kingdom, although clearly she was deemed subservient to the Shitennou.

"You have summoned me, _Master_ Kunzite?" the mysterious being asked with an unmistakably sarcastic tone and an obvious scowl once she realized where she was and who she was talking to.

"Come on, Sazaratha, drop the attitude. I have a mission for you," he replied while making no attempt to hide his annoyance.

"_You_ have a mission for _me_? What am I, your goddamned lapdog?" Her eyes narrowed as she glared at him in infuriation.

He sighed. "Look, I know you're angry that Queen Beryl selected us Shitennou to lead the Dark Kingdom's forces, but what did you really expect?"

"Some proper respect for one. I've been with Metalia since day one. Then she makes the mistake of recruiting Beryl to take over this pathetic little marble and _you_ guys suddenly are in charge? Where does that even _begin_ to make sense?" she complained loudly.

"It makes sense as we're far more powerful than you, despite the connections you love to claim."

She chuckled. "So that's why you got your ass kicked by a little girl? Because you're so much more powerful than me?" she said mockingly. He glared at her with a perplexed expression in his eyes which caused her to smile. "I bet you're wondering how I knew. _Somebody_ had to feed you all that energy from Queen Metalia," she said, with the smile morphing into a wry smirk.

He momentarily looked down at his feet and shook his head. He knew that the only reason he was being physically dominated by Sailor Moon was that he was holding back. Magically she had an edge, of course, but his mission was to keep her busy, not to kill her. But he knew none of that would matter in his argument with Sazaratha.

"Okay, okay… You win, for now," he said in a slightly defeated tone. "I need your help. Will you help me, please?"

"That sounds better," she said with a less harsh tone than before. She took one step toward the man. "Now, what is this 'mission' you're talking about?"

He lifted his arm as before. This time, he projected a hologram that displayed a small, red, five-door hatchback materialized in front of the pair. The sedan was parked in the driveway of a two-story house with a red-shingled roof.

"Why are you showing me a picture of a car?" she asked with some confusion.

"You'll find out if you'd let me finish," he replied coldly.

"I don't _have_ to help you, you know."

"Fine… It's not the car I want, but its occupants," he said without the frosty demeanor from before. The hologram displayed, in order, the faces of an older dark-brown-haired man with similar colored eyes, a woman with sepia eyes and black hair that held a bluish sheen in just the right light, and a young boy with light-brown hair and dark-green eyes. "They are the Tsukinos. Kenji, Ikuko, and Shingo. These are your targets. I don't anticipate them being at home right now, thus me showing you their transport."

"That's more like it. But what do they have to do with anything?" she asked innocently.

"Sailor Moon is related to them. Her name is Usagi Tsukino. Those are her parents and her younger brother."

She nodded slowly, sensing exactly what he was about to request of her. "I see… So, what exactly do you want me to do?"

"Do what you do best. Just don't be so obvious about it, unlike last time," he replied with a light smirk.

She returned an intensely furious glare at him. "I'm pretty sure that was not _my_ fault that I was put in a situation where I had to trash an entire building in order to save you guys. If you Shitennou, Jadeite especially, knew how to put together a decent plan, none of that would have happened," she said irately. "I'm just happy I managed to escape before any of the senshi learned of my true identity."

"Touché." He paused for a moment and exhaled a deep sigh. "So, will you help me?" he asked softly.

Sazaratha pointed her eyes toward the ceiling as she took a few seconds to ponder her options. Acutally, she had already made up her mind to assist Kunzite, as she wanted the senshi to fail as much as anyone from the Dark Kingdom, and she probably was better suited than anyone to make it happen. Furthermore, she found her role, when she wasn't plucking the Shittenou from the dangerous situations into which they stumbled, quite fun. But the discomfort on Kunzite's face that grew the longer she delayed was too good for her to pass up. That, and she had a request of her own she wanted to make sure she properly relayed.

"I'll do it," she eventually said calmly. Her voice then picked up for the second part. "But, I do want in return your recommendation for a promotion."

Kunzite practically stumbled over himself when he heard her say that. "A _promotion_?"

"With Nephrite dead and Jadeite in Eternal Sleep, you guys are a bit short-handed. And as much as I enjoy what I currently do, I would love the challenge—never mind the long-overdue respect—of being one of the supreme leaders. Besides, I can make your life a living hell if you don't," she said playfully, giving Kunzite a devious wink at the end.

He flinched. He didn't want to do so as he was more than happy to have the Shitennou in control of things. But, he knew she was absolutely right about them and about her ability to make life extremely difficult for him. "Okay. I'll put in a recommendation for your ascension," he said unhappily.

She gave him a sickeningly sweet smile before turning her back to him. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some work to do," she said as she walked away from him and, with the smallest flash of white light, teleported out of the building.

Kunzite hung his head. He hated dealing with her, but she was the best at her role within the Dark Kingdom. He acknowledged in his mind that she was almost as good as them, and maybe she was already an equal. But he would never tell her that directly. Her ego was large enough and he didn't need to inflate it any more. He needed her peculiar skills, abilities none of the Shitennou possessed, in order to achieve his ultimate goal of defeating Princess Serenity. A very, very minute part of him briefly felt sympathy for the pure evilness of the method he had chosen to accomplish his objective, but it was soon squelched. It was nothing more than what had to be done. His eyes narrowed as he turned and started walking toward the stairs. He had a princess to corral.


	22. The End of the Matter

**Chapter 22: The End of the Matter**

Usagi sighed sadly as the door closed behind her. She didn't want to retreat back into the building, but she couldn't withstand the negative energy much longer without resorting to the use of her Silver Crystal. Had she survived, she likely wouldn't have had enough magical energy to do anything once she found Ami and the other girls. She slumped to her knees near one of the sofas.

"_I can't leave here without using the Silver Crystal to protect myself from all that dark energy,"_ she thought as the awful realization hit her. _"Whatever is causing that needs to be destroyed, and fast."_ She closed her eyes and tried to concentrate on locating the source of the painful energy that encapsulated the building. The loud clicks of boot heels on the stairs broke her concentration, but there wasn't much else to discover by that time. The answer had revealed itself.

"So, I see you're still here. What a surprise," Kunzite said more coldly than his typical sarcastic tone.

She slowly stood up and locked narrowed eyes on her silver-haired opponent. "You're the one responsible for that field of negative energy, aren't you?" she asked with a strange calmness.

"I did say I wasn't going to let you leave here." He continued walking toward her until he was about ten feet away from the blonde. His blue-grey eyes returned the stare. "The only way you'll leave this building is if you kill me," he said with frightening seriousness. "I underestimated you before, and I'm not going to be so easy on you this time."

She had always felt a little bit nervous as she battled him, but when he told her that he had been going easy on her, she became absolutely terrified. She knew he was a difficult opponent, but as they fought she convinced herself she was equivalently matched to him, if not slightly better than him. To learn that all the hits she landed on him were due not so much to her fighting skill but to his restraint sapped her confidence. Her cheeks blanched as her face contorted into a look of outright horror despite her best efforts to conceal her emotions. He gave the smallest of grins in response. If he wasn't being so solemn, he would have been absolutely elated.

"Now, Princess, it's time for you to learn what you're truly up against," he said sternly.

Before she could even blink, he raised both of his arms and fired a pair of light-blue spheres of energy at the senshi. They were much larger and raced toward her far quicker than she had seen before. She braced herself for the inevitable impact and the immense pain that she anticipated would result from the attack. Moments before the two energy blasts hit her, the Moon Stick, which she continued to clutch tightly in her hands, emitted a blindingly bright white light as it automatically erected a shield of pure energy. Its intention was to deflect the two attacks away from its charge, but the two spheres collided with the shield with such force that it knocked her into the wall ten feet behind her. It was a miracle that she managed to hold onto the Moon Stick as her body smashed into the concrete. She fell from the wall face first onto the hardwood floor with a sickening thud. Her vision was blurred and spotted, her body ached everywhere, and she felt herself slowly losing consciousness, but her hands steadfastly refused to release the wand.

He walked ever so slowly toward the injured girl, the click from each strike of his boot heel against the wood floor echoing ominously about the room. He stopped a foot away from her head. The temptation to drive his heel into her face was strong, but for the moment he quashed that feeling. He had other plans for her.

"As I said, Princess, I'm not going to go easy on you anymore," he said harshly. He reached down to pick her up by her collar, but stopped when his hand was a few inches away. It slowly retreated, as did he, wary of approaching her further.

"_She seems to be out cold, but I thought that once before, too. I have to watch out for her tricks,"_ he thought. He then pointed his arm at the prone girl and charged another energy attack in the palm of his hand. The moment he did so the wand in her hand began to emit a faint white light. He recognized immediately what was occurring and smirked before releasing the attack from point blank range.

Exactly as he had expected, as soon as the bright blue energy left his hand the Moon Stick glowed brilliantly white. The energy shield materialized in front of her yet again, protecting her from the potentially lethal blast. But, in doing so, the hapless girl was pushed along the floor and knocked back into the wall. She slammed into it feet first, absorbing the impact with her legs. Her unconscious mind breathed a sigh of relief she didn't fall the other way, else she would have been thrown into the wall head-first, leading to unimaginable damage and leaving her completely vulnerable to whatever he had planned to do to her next. She was incredibly lucky to survive those two strikes, but she desperately needed to recollect herself and begin fighting back. There was too much for her to lose.

On cue, the Silver Crystal docked within the Moon Stick emitted a faint pink light. Moments later her body also began to glow pink, and she began to feel very warm. It was a soothing, pleasant warmth that contrasted strikingly with the coldness of the hard floor and the roughness of the concrete wall. After only a few moments she began to feel rejuvenated. The intense pain that previously engulfed her body soon faded, as did the cloudiness and black spots in her vision. Her strength was restored, and soon she could lift herself up from the ground with ease. The only downfall was that the creation of the shield and the restoration of her physical energy depleted some of the magical energy she was attempting to save. It was energy she required to fully heal Kunzite and save Luna, Mariko, and the others whose souls he had taken.

He stared at the display from the middle of the studio. He knew that he would once again have to deal with the irrepressible senshi. But, at the same time, he realized that he was winning. By forcing her to use magic, magic she had restrained herself from wielding ever since her initial failed attempt to heal him, she would play herself straight into his hand.

Usagi sighed inwardly. She tried as hard as she could to conserve her magical energy so she could make another attempt at healing Kunzite with Moon Healing Escalation. She thought she was making excellent headway in weakening the Shitennou leader with purely physical attacks and cunning. Her training sessions under Luna had vastly elevated her fighting skills in that regard, and she reasoned she was putting her new talents to good use. But to learn that all of her success in avoiding use of magic was solely due to his lackadaisical approach was a painful blow. Following the two actual blows of a more serious and rededicated enemy, she knew she couldn't hold back anymore herself. She couldn't think about healing him anymore. She didn't want to kill him—in fact she couldn't kill him, given his possession of captive souls—but she had to defeat him as swiftly and soundly as she could manage. There was no time to consider any other strategy as Ami's life and much more were at stake. She pushed herself up from the hard, cold floor and stood tall. Her eyes shined resplendently and betrayed no fear as they stared at the grey-suited man standing in the middle of the studio. Her hands tightly clenched the Moon Stick that she held in front of her.

"So you're a glutton for punishment, I see…" he said derisively. He held his hand out once again with the intent of delivering another attack. However, he would not get the opportunity.

Her eyes closed gently as she contemplated exactly which attack to use and how much energy to put into the strike. Although she couldn't directly see him, she felt that he was preparing to send yet another blast of energy. She had experienced the ferocious intensity those blue orbs contained. As painful it was to be hit by them, she knew she possessed more than enough energy of her own to match and surpass his attacks. And she was even more thankful that he had decided to increase the strength of his attacks, as she could better gauge how much power he had at hand. That knowledge had significantly raised her self-confidence as it revealed that he truly wasn't that much more powerful than her. No, in fact she was _far_ more powerful than him. His only advantage was his never-ending supply of dark energy. She raised the Moon Stick above her head, unconsciously spun around rapidly several times, and then leveled the wand at her opponent. The words "Moon Twilight Flash!" escaped her lips, and several extremely bright and white-hot balls of pure energy shot from the Moon Stick and raced toward their target.

As he was preoccupied with launching his own attack, he did not notice she was preparing to strike until it was too late. Each of the balls hit him with vicious force, knocking him clear across the building into the other wall. Unlike Usagi, he didn't have a shield to protect him and he took the full brunt of the attack. However, unlike Usagi, he had a near limitless pool of dark energy streaming directly from Queen Metalia to allow for rapid recovery. After only a few seconds, he was back on his feet and was absolutely furious at himself for leaving himself open to attack, but the vast majority of his rage was directed at the blonde senshi.

"That is a move you will ultimately regret making," he said with a low, harsh voice and a burning rage in his narrowed blue-grey eyes.

"Believe me when I say that I will regret absolutely nothing," she said determinedly, the confidence in her eyes unwavering. She pointed the Moon Stick at Kunzite once again.

—|1|**2**|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|—

Zoisite stared at the trio of senshi, each of whom had a combination of concern and anger etched in their faces, as they hovered over a fourth senshi. The youngest member of the Shitennou floated several hundred feet over the clearing. He had teleported away from the group of girls shortly after his youma was destroyed by the combined attacks of Sailors Jupiter and Venus. The two senshi each had encountered a new source of energy and gained new attacks. He realized the attacks were new because they had not used them in any of the previous youma attacks, especially the ones he and Kunzite had designed explicitly to learn what capabilities the senshi had possessed and to acquire them for themselves. A smirk crept onto his lips. The Shitennou leader, whom he deeply admired and considered much like an older brother, had told him about another weakness the senshi had possessed. Once they noticed an enemy teleporting away from a battle they didn't pay much attention to exactly _where_ that opponent actually ended up traveling. That trick was used by Kunzite in order to learn the true identity of Sailors Moon and Mercury, and from that he determined the identities of all the other senshi and their families, the people with whom they were closely associated, where they lived and went to school, and pretty much everything else. It was a treasure trove of information that they wasted no time taking advantage of, and they used it to construct the plan they were executing to perfection that evening.

The knowledge that he had the upper hand over the senshi pleased Zoisite to the point of giddiness. He decided that if he couldn't have fun with the senshi by having them fight his youma, then he would find another way to enjoy himself. Unbeknownst to the girls below, his brand of fun would be to play with their emotions, to startle them and make them anxious and afraid. The smirk turned into a wide smile as he pointed his arm at the unconscious Sailor Mercury.

"_This should be… interesting,"_ he thought as he emitted a faint green light, so faint that no person could easily detect it unless they knew exactly where to look.

The same instant that he was pointing from above, Ami's body began to spasm uncontrollably. Rei attempted to hold the blue-haired girl to stop her convulsions but was blatantly unsuccessful, receiving a bloodied nose in the failed effort.

"_Well, well… this is a little fun after all,"_ he thought. _"I have to try this again sometime later. It's unfortunate that I'll only have ten minutes to play with Ami."_

—|1|2|**3**|4|5|6|7|8|9|—

Far below the floating man, Minako, Rei, and Makoto were desperately attempting to figure out just what was wrong with Ami as well as why Usagi had yet to arrive.

"Argh!" Rei yelled as she brought a hand up to her face to massage her stinging and, at that time, very tender nose. She could feel the blood streaming from both of her nostrils, sullying the pristine white fabric of her gloves. Ever so slight movements of her hand along the bridge of her nose told her that, fortunately, it was not broken. Not that it would have taken long to heal as a senshi, but she would have had to ensure that it was properly set so that it healed correctly. Their healing powers only accelerated the rate of their natural healing—it didn't correct for any medical mistakes.

"Are you okay?" the other two girls yelled almost in unison.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just a little woozy," Rei replied in a wobbly voice. The sudden strike to the face also made her quite dizzy, as would have been expected. She took a few steps away from Ami's still figure and sat down on the ground with her knees pulled tightly to her chest. She tilted her head back slightly and cautiously pinched her nostrils together with one hand to stem the flow of blood.

"She wasn't like that before. Could it be that she's renewed her attempt to fight the effects of the sapping stone?" Makoto asked hesitantly. Her despondent jade-green eyes turned toward Minako, her leader. In her mind she hoped that, somehow, the typically vivacious blonde had some answer.

"I… I don't know," Minako said in a sorrowful whisper. She stared off into space, her eyes glistening slightly as tears began to well. "I truly hope that is the case. I just wish there was something I could do to help her fight, if that is what's happening."

"Me too, Minako-chan… Me too," Makoto said mournfully. She looked over at Ami and sighed deeply.

After about a minute the bleeding from Rei's nose had completely stopped. It was still quite sore, but she felt she could manage the pain. She had sustained far worse injuries in battle, and this was nothing compared to any of those. Especially that one time…

"Where's Usagi? You did talk with her, right?" Makoto asked innocuously.

"I did," Minako replied. "She said she would be here. She should be here by now. I don't know what happened with her."

Rei turned her head to Ami's sprawled body. Her typically stunning violet eyes, which had since been dimmed by the dreadful suffering she had seen and experienced herself, gazed sympathetically at the unconscious girl. She knew more intimately than any of them what it felt like—or rather, what it didn't feel like—to be in such a helpless state. The last thing she wanted was for any of her friends to endure the same fate, but now she could do nothing but watch the gentle and minute rise and fall of Ami's chest that occurred with each shallow breath. It depressed her, but it also infuriated her. Of course she was angry at Zoisite for being the one most directly responsible for attacking her. He was the one who implanted the stone within her, after all. But that was to be expected as he was the enemy. The prime target of her rage was Usagi. She was supposed to be there long ago, helping them rescue Ami from the vile effects of the sapping stone. She had promised after all. But, Usagi had promised a lot of things.

"She doesn't care about us," Rei whispered as her eyes slowly narrowed.

"Rei-chan?" Minako asked. She heard the raven-haired girl mumble something, and she was uncertain whether she fully understood what was said.

"She doesn't care about us. She's probably thrilled with what's happening right now," Rei said, a bit louder and with more rage evident in her voice.

Minako's eyes widened slightly with shock. She didn't know if the shock was that Rei would make such an accusation or that, somehow, Rei very well may have been right about Usagi. She hadn't appeared yet, as she had promised. But she still had time. Ami still had time. She didn't fully trust her fellow blonde, but she was determined not to completely abandon faith in her quite yet. Her eyes slowly turned down to gaze solemnly at the grass at her feet.

"Well, when I last talked with her, she said that she encountered Kunzite. Maybe she still has to deal with him," Minako suggested, although her tone offered little confidence for her words.

Rei shook her head. "I still can't believe you're defending this bitch after she's ditched us. That's assuming she ever planned on showing up." The anger in her voice was unmistakable and incessantly growing.

"Rei-chan, calm down. Please. I'm sure she's trying—"

"No! Don't tell me to calm the fuck down! Are you too dense to see that she—"

As luck and irony would have it, just as Rei had interrupted Minako in her blind fury, Ami's renewed convulsions cut short the fire senshi's passionate haranguing of her leader. The involuntary shaking seemed to be much worse this time and lasted twice as long, further instilling within the girls a profound fear that Ami might not survive. Unlike the last seizure, nobody dared approach the girl until her thrashing stopped. However, the moment it was clear that Ami was tranquil once again all the attention was turned to the incapacitated girl. Rei slowly walked over to Ami and bent down next to her. She gently pushed aside the blue hair that obscured Ami's face before placing her ear immediately over Ami's face to listen for any sounds of life. Small puffs of air and the occasional hoarse groan told Rei that Ami was still breathing, but it was clear that her breaths were even shallower than before.

"Is she going to be okay?" Makoto asked anxiously.

"For now, up to the point that stone takes all the life from her," Rei replied sullenly. She slowly shook her head, and it was clear the anger from before was returning with full force. "And if it were all up to Usagi, she'd be dead soon."

Makoto had been silent during the whole argument between Minako and Rei. She didn't trust Usagi that much anymore, which was not an uncommon sentiment among the girls. On the other hand, she didn't have the personal hatred for Usagi that Rei possessed. A small part of her wished that Usagi had promised along with the other senshi to protect the princess. In fact, that same part of her wished even more deeply that Usagi truly was the princess, much like she appeared to be once before. She wanted this to not have happened, and she desperately wanted to resume the friendship with the girl that let her know she truly was not alone. Unfortunately it was not to be, as Usagi was responsible for putting their princess in danger and for stealing the Silver Crystal. That instigated Makoto's decision to abandon Usagi that night. However, the offer to voluntarily return the crystal vastly improved her estimation of the pigtailed blonde. As such, she was certainly willing to give her former leader the benefit of the doubt that night, as she knew in her mind and believed in her heart that nobody else had a chance of rescuing Ami.

"Rei-chan," Makoto started slowly, "I agree with Minako-chan. There is still time, and Usagi very well may come before… she… she dies." She had palpable difficultly saying the last word.

"Heh… You too?" Rei scoffed. Her eyes narrowed as she pointed them at the stunned brunette. "You believe that little fraud is somehow magically going to show up here and help any one of us. If that's the case, why is she _not here_? It doesn't take fifteen fucking minutes to get here from _anywhere_!"

Makoto lowered her head. As angry and fiery as she was, she had a perfectly legitimate point. As a senshi, she would be able to reach the park from pretty much any point inside of Juuban well within fifteen minutes, assuming Usagi actually tried to move as quickly as she could.

"I… don't know why she's not here now," Minako said softly.

"I figured as much," Rei said condescendingly.

Minako, who had been staring at Ami the entire time, turned and looked at Rei with a strange new resolve in her eyes. "Well, if you believe that Usagi's not going to come here, then what do you think we should do? What is _your_ plan to save Ami?"

Rei opened her mouth to speak, but suddenly realized she had nothing she could say. She was so absorbed in her hatred of Usagi and her cynicism of the girl's abilities and intentions that she forgot she was as helpless in the situation as she thought Usagi to be callous and deceitful. There wasn't anything she could do to help Ami. The immense power of the sapping stone exceeded anything her miko skills could handle. Using an ofuda would have been a complete waste of time, which was something she instantly recognized and was sure the other girls also knew. So, there was nothing she could do except cross her arms in a huff and sit silently on the cold ground next to Ami, her eyes staring into space.

"That's what I thought," Minako said bluntly as her piercing royal-blue eyes glared at the defeated Rei. She then turned around so that her back was to Ami and Rei, closed her eyes, and released a slow, cathartic sigh. "I know we're all powerless here," she said in a calmer and more pensive tone, "so I think the best thing for all of us to do is to wait for Usagi to show up and do whatever she can do to remove that stone from Ami's body. I hope that is what happens, and let me be the first to tell you all there will be hell to pay for Usagi if she fails this or if she doesn't show up. But that is later. Now, all we can do is look over Ami and make sure she's comfortable and doesn't injure herself too much."

Just as Minako finished speaking, Ami started convulsing yet again.

—|1|2|3|**4**|5|6|7|8|9|—

A dark figure stood in the tree line just behind the quartet of senshi, obscured by the lengthening shadows that threatened to completely overtake the clearing. He silently observed the group from afar, trying to determine in his mind exactly what was happening to them. He could hear them mention something about a sapping stone, and that one of the girls was slowly dying because of it. That eventuality depressed him and infuriated him all at the same time, mainly due to the identity of the person that was suffering and gradually expiring right before his eyes. The love of his life was experiencing the worst pain imaginable and would soon die because of it, and he could do absolutely nothing. That was the scene that greeted Mamoru has he arrived at the park that horrible evening.

Deep inside his heart and in his own thoughts he blamed himself for what he was looking at in the clearing. He knew Ami, and likely the other girls, were in trouble several minutes earlier, before his love was struck by the sapping stone. He could feel that there was a massive youma battle that occurred there. If he had arrived earlier, he could have intervened in some way. It was possible he would have noticed the tremendous amount of dark energy that signaled Zoisite's presence. However, when he appeared he saw Zoisite teleporting away from the battle, and he knew he was too late to do anything in that regard. He mentally kicked himself. There was no doubt in his mind he would have showed up at the onset of that battle. However, another force had tugged at him and had unconsciously pleaded for his assistance. He was caught between competing requests and he truly was conflicted as to which one to respond to first. His mind went to work analyzing as best he could the pros and cons of each one. That wasn't the only component of his analysis, however, as his heart had just as much to say about the decision. After several agonizing minutes he finally made up his mind and rushed to the park. As he stood hidden in the bushes, listening to the conversation between the three still-conscious senshi, he slowly realized he made the incorrect choice. He followed the wrong call.

He was hesitant to follow the second call, the one made by the girl he had so callously abandoned almost two weeks ago. Once ago, she—Usagi—was the only one who had such a strong, involuntary pull on Mamoru and could compel him to become Tuxedo Kamen whenever she was in trouble. When he realized that he truly loved Ami much more than he ever loved Usagi, her pull faded and he became far more perceptive of the danger surrounding Ami. She was the girl he would rescue from then on. At least, that was the way it was supposed to be. However, that last meeting with Usagi greatly confused things within both his mind and his heart. He was deeply in love with Ami and he knew he stood no chance of falling in love with Usagi once again. Even if he did, she probably would rebuff him. Yet, that meeting, the sight of her suicide attempt right before his eyes, and the realization that he did truly care about her amplified once again his perception of the danger surrounding his former girlfriend. And so there he was, receiving her involuntary plea at almost the same time as his dearest Ami's. His conscious mind told him that Ami did not have any offensive skills, only defensive, and that whatever situation she found herself mired in would require his support. Usagi at least had offensive attacks, and very powerful ones at that. Furthermore, Usagi was a completely different person from before, and he saw with his own eyes that she could take care of herself. His heart concurred and reminded him of his intense love for Ami and told him how awful he would be if he placed someone else ahead of her.

He flinched as he heard Rei's loud condemnation of Usagi, and doubly so when he witnessed the second of Ami's seizures. That was the scene that confirmed in his mind that he indeed made a terrible mistake in rushing to the park first. As ironic as it sounded and as much as he didn't want to believe it even as he was scolding himself, in order to save Ami he had to help Usagi. He knew she would have the power to save his Ami. He also knew that, contrary to Rei's accusations, the reason she wasn't there in the park was that she was still very much in trouble. He sighed and pulled a watch from his jacket pocket. Ami had just less than ten minutes to live. He could feel approximately where Usagi was, and he reasoned if he left immediately he could get there in time to help her and ensure she could get to the park before Ami died.

—|1|2|3|4|**5**|6|7|8|9|—

Even though she was walking down a sparsely populated street, she could feel the piercing stares the strange people gave her as she walked by. Many of those stares came from men who were enamored by her exquisite beauty, although a few came from women who were jealous for the exact same reason. She certainly was absolutely stunning with unblemished pale skin, long and slightly wavy blond hair, and gorgeous indigo eyes into which many men wished they could become forever lost. Furthermore, she wore an elegant knee-length dress that closely hugged her almost perfect figure and matched the hue of her eyes. However, she cared not for her innate attractiveness or for the people who were interested in it that evening. She was on a mission, and this was merely a disguise, one of many, that allowed her to blend into the populace. Granted, this was her favorite disguise and the form she took even when she had no need for such camouflage, but it was deception nonetheless. She stopped when she arrived at a certain two-story house in one of the residential areas of Juuban.

"_This is where the Tsukino family is supposed to live, according to Kunzite,"_ Sazaratha said to herself as she studied the exterior of the house from the sidewalk.

She calmly walked up the driveway and stopped in front of a small garage. She looked down at the concrete, and especially at some of the red-and-brown stains within. There was evidence that an automobile occasionally was parked outside, which might or might not have been owned by the Tsukino family. She remembered that Kunzite showed her a picture of a red five-door hatchback and that he told her that it was their car. However, she was not about to believe what he said blindly. She knew just how terrible the Shitennou were at times in obtaining correct information prior to executing their operations, and on more than one occasion she had to rescue them from their own screw-ups. She needed to obtain her own intelligence prior to forming her plan.

She walked back down the driveway to the sidewalk. Her eyes turned to the house immediately adjacent to the Tsukino residence. With short but determined steps, she marched up the path to the front door of that house and firmly rapped on the door. A few seconds later the door opened and an older woman greeted her.

"Good evening, young lady," the elderly woman said in salutation.

"A pleasant evening to you, ma'am," Sazaratha replied with a deceptively gentle smile. The woman returned the smile. "Do you happen to know the people who live next door?" she asked with an innocent tone.

"Ah, the Tsukino's? Yes, I know them. They are very nice people. But, why do you ask?"

"Well, my mother and I are old family friends of theirs and we were worried about them. My mother tried to contact them many times today but she could not get a response," Sazaratha said in a slightly low-pitched voice that portrayed concern, yet was still melodious. "I was nearby for other business and my mom asked me to check up on them. I did so but they weren't at home. Do you happen to know if they went anywhere?"

The older woman's eyes lit up. "Ah, yes, I believe I do. They were talking about a school awards ceremony their son was to attend some days ago. They were so proud of him," she said with satisfaction. She then paused for a few moments in contemplation. "Come to think of it, they may be there right now."

"Shingo, right? He always was a smart one ever since he was little," Sazaratha replied with a smile. She didn't actually know the boy, and never would get to know him, but she figured he would have to be pretty intelligent to be given such awards. So, she played along. "It's at the elementary school down the road that way, I assume?" She pointed down the street in the direction of the setting sun.

"No, that's the school for another part of the neighborhood. The school he goes to is that way," the aged woman said as she pointed roughly in the opposite direction.

"I see… Thank you very much," Sazaratha said, warmly as far as the woman could tell. She began to turn away and head for the school, but stopped. The complete stranger was so forthcoming with vital information that it couldn't help but to verify one more piece. She turned back to the woman with a sweet smile but that soon was replaced by a concerned look. "I noticed their car wasn't there… I loved that old sedan they had. Nice, zippy, and my favorite shade of blue."

"Oh, no, they have a different car now," the old woman interjected. "They bought a new car about a year ago, an Axela hatchback I believe, a bit larger than what they had and red now too. They needed the extra space, they said."

Sazaratha pouted. "Bah… red… Such a horrible, painful color," she said with fake annoyance.

"To tell the truth, I'm not such a big fan of the hue myself," the elderly woman said with a wink. "Anyway, you should be able to see them when they return later this evening."

"I'm sure I will. Thank you for assuaging my mother's concerns, as well as mine. Have a good night," Sazaratha said with what looked to be a warm smile. The old woman offered similar pleasantries and then retreated back into her home with a friendly smile and wave.

"_That was totally too easy,"_ Sazaratha thought with a widening smirk. _"She just continued to talk and feed me so much vital information. She didn't even do as much as ask for my name. Pathetic. In fairness to Kunzite, it seems the guy finally had something right for once. I'm impressed."_

She slowly walked down the street in the direction of the elementary school. The gears were furiously turning within her mind as she tried to construct her plan. They had taken their car, and yet the school was well within walking distance, so she determined they had planned to go somewhere else after the ceremony. That little detail gave her an important opening and, more importantly, allowed her to use her skills efficiently. She was excited to do exactly that. But, as she saw the buildings of the elementary school come into view, she knew she had to be patient. Hastiness was not a virtue, after all.

—|1|2|3|4|5|**6**|7|8|9|—

Kunzite slowly pushed himself up from the floor, his body aching all over. The hardwood floor seemed to be an object with which he was intimately familiar for the past several minutes. His strategy was to force Usagi to use her magic against him in an offensive mode. If she was constantly forced to use magical attacks against him, she would lack the energy required to heal him. He could keep her busy for hours on end. The largest problem with that tactic was that doing so was incredibly and horribly painful. Who knew she had so much raw power behind her attacks?

"Kunzite, why won't you just give up and get rid of that field of dark energy outside?" Usagi asked with a pleading tone.

He chuckled haughtily. "I can do this all day, Princess."

"_That's the very thing I'm afraid of,"_ she thought. She knew she had only a few minutes to get to the park and rescue Ami. If she was going to give herself a chance, she would need to find a way to drastically weaken him, and fast.

Fortunately for her, there was one more problem for the evil general. When he sent for Sazaratha from the Dark Kingdom, there was nobody left behind to feed him more crucial energy from Queen Metalia. He didn't know she was the one responsible for sustaining his power until she told him as much. He certainly didn't know at that point his quick summoning of her left no time to find a replacement. So, even as he boasted he could withstand her attacks all day, in truth he could only go on for a few more minutes. Unfortunately, she was unaware of that vital fact.

"Moon Twilight Flash!" she yelled, her tone becoming more desperate. The bright white spheres of pure energy slammed hard into him, lifting him and throwing him into the wall. He had not had an opportunity to fire an attack at her since he originally threatened her and forced her to use magic. That did not matter to her, however, as she was not about to let up on the Shitennou leader.

"_Come on, just a few more minutes,"_ he thought as he struggled to lift himself up from the ground. _"I don't know why I'm not getting any more energy, but if I can hold her for a few more minutes, then everything will be worth it."_ He managed to hoist himself to his feet.

"_Is there anything I can do to beat Kunzite?"_ she despondently thought.

The moment that thought passed through her mind was the exact same moment the sharpened green stem of a resplendent red rose passed through the side of Kunzite's jacket. Usagi slowly turned her head to the source of that rose.

"Tuxedo Kamen?" Usagi shouted in a mixture of joy and confusion. Her eyes widened and her nose scrunched up as she caught sight of the caped figure. "What are you doing here?" she asked, this time in a perplexed tone.

"Doing what I probably should have done much earlier," Mamoru replied with a hint of dejection in his voice.

"'Done much earlier'…? I don't understand what you're talking about," Usagi said softly, her puzzlement even more evident.

Mamoru closed his eyes and turned his head downward, slowly shaking it. "It's not important," he said disappointedly, as if he had, for a split second, expected a different reaction. He looked up once again and stared at Usagi with more determined dark-blue eyes. "Anyway, I believe you have a Sailor Senshi that needs rescuing."

"Yes, but… how did you get in here?" Usagi asked hesitantly. She wasn't able to leave, so she figured nobody would be able to enter either.

"There's a hole in the field of dark energy that's surrounding this building. I dropped through the hole and broke in through one of the windows," Mamoru replied.

"A _hole_?" The thought that the dark energy barrier was weakening even as she spoke thoroughly surprised her initially and then saddened her as she realized she could have escaped much earlier. Her continued fighting was frivolous.

Kunzite ripped the rose from his already-tattered jacket and threw it to the ground. His eyes narrowed and turned red with fierce anger, and a blue halo of light surrounded his body. He quickly turned and pointed outstretched arms at Mamoru. An enormous ball of energy, a swirling mixture of onyx black, misty grey, and pale turquoise, rapidly swelled in his hands. The smallest of smirks graced his lips as he fired the deadly sphere that represented the remnants of his own evil power combined with the last of the supplemental energy fed to him from the Dark Kingdom.

"_I may not be able to hold the Princess here much longer, but at least I'll be able to make this somewhat worthwhile," _he thought as he discharged the blast.

"Mamoru!" Usagi yelled in dismay. She raised her Moon Stick to respond, to make one futile attempt to save Mamoru from certain death, but she was too late to do anything about it. The gargantuan ball of dark energy, as large in diameter as Kunzite was tall, completely engulfed Mamoru's body. Painful screams emanated from the sphere. Usagi closed her eyes as tears threatened to flow unrestrained down her blanched cheeks. She might not have loved him anymore, and he might not have loved her either, but she did not want to see him die, and certainly not in that manner. She knew in her mind that nobody assaulted by that much dark energy could have lived to tell the tale.

The cloud of dark energy slowly dissipated, and what was revealed when all was cleared shocked all but one person. Kunzite stood frozen in place with his eyes widened and his mouth agape. Usagi blinked a few times before rapidly shaking her head and staring with equally wide eyes. Mamoru glared at Kunzite with narrowed eyes that plainly revealed both his fortitude and his annoyance. Evidently, Kunzite's attack had failed to kill Mamoru despite the enormous amount of power behind the blast. Not to say that Mamoru didn't feel the effects of the blow as the many rips and tears in his cape and tuxedo, never mind the complete disappearance of his prized top hat, clearly revealed. Moreover, he was down on one knee, and his acute trembling and ragged breaths suggested that he was as close to an upright posture as he could attain without assistance for the foreseeable future. However, none of that mattered. Mamoru survived, and Kunzite was out of options save for one.

"Are you surprised?" Mamoru asked Kunzite with a wry grin. The leader of the Shitennou remained silent.

Usagi leveled the Moon Stick in Kunzite's direction, knowing that was her chance to save the captured souls. Kunzite saw the movement of the golden crescent in the corner of his eye and instantly knew that it meant impending death for him if he stayed even a few seconds longer. He raised his right arm into the air and disappeared from the two of them and his imminent demise in a black cloud of smoke. Unlike in previous teleports he made sure he went directly to his lair within the Dark Kingdom, as he was too weak to stay in the human realm much longer.

Usagi swung around to look at the injured Mamoru. "Are you okay?" she asked hesitantly with concern as she slowly walked to him.

"Don't worry about me, Usagi!" Mamoru exclaimed more harshly than he intended as he stuck a hand out at her, signaling to her to stay away. "I'll be fine. You only have a few minutes to get to the park and save Ami, so go, please!"

Those last words immediately caught her attention. She turned and sprinted through the front door of the studio without even a second glance in his direction. As soon as she stepped outside she knew the negative energy barrier had been obliterated with Kunzite's final attack, as the street and sidewalk were alive and teeming with people. She sideswiped one pedestrian, deftly avoided another, and leaped to the top of the studio before either bystander could interpret what had happened. From there, she flew from rooftop to rooftop in an unwavering path that led directly to Juuban Park.

Mamoru slowly pushed himself up from the cold, hard floor and to his feet. He knew he had to leave soon as the incredible destruction within the studio inevitably would draw people's attention, and soon thereafter the attention of the local authorities. Even as he slowly pulled himself up the stairs by the handrails, feeling fortunate that his main power was healing, he couldn't shake the thought that Usagi absolutely was a different girl. He knew that when he last saw her at his apartment, but that last exchange between them confirmed it, not so much by what was said but by what wasn't said. The old Usagi would have dithered, torn between helping him and rushing to save Ami. This Usagi was more decisive, having bolted in an instant for the park without any further thought of his wellbeing. Clearly Ami was a priority over him. He knew he shouldn't have cared so much about such insignificant things when the life of his dearest love was at stake. However, his mind would not allow him to ignore the scene so easily.

—|1|2|3|4|5|6|**7**|8|9|—

"_Hmm, playing with these pathetic little girls from afar is a lot more fun than I ever could have imagined,"_ Zoisite boasted, but only within the confines of his mind. His dark-green eyes shined resplendently as he stared at the increasingly despondent group of senshi far below. _"They are practically self-destructing with every wave of my hand."_

A sudden pinging in his mind alerted him to the telepathic message that could only come from another member of the Shitennou. He sighed before closing his eyes and concentrating as hard as he could on completing the mental link. His body emitted a faint green light as he stood in meditation.

"_Zoisite, the princess is on her way, and fast,"_ he heard in his mind in the ragged, hurried voice of an obviously defeated Kunzite.

He sighed yet again, and made sure his older compatriot could sense his displeasured exhalation. _"How soon should we expect her to arrive?"_

"_Probably two or three minutes at her speed,"_ Kunzite replied tiredly. He involuntarily winced in response to the residual pain that existed all over his badly broken body.

"_Meh. It's probably a good idea for me to just go ahead and finish this now."_

"_What do you mean? We have five minutes before the sapping stone reaches its full effect. She'll arrive at the park easily before that time."_

Zoisite smirked shamelessly. _"The stone has five minutes _if_ I didn't do anything to accelerate its effects,"_ he said playfully. There was a momentary pause as Kunzite pondered the implications of the previous sentence. Then the inevitable response arrived in full force.

"_WHAT? You mean you could have finished this a _long time ago_?"_ an infuriated Kunzite asked. Zoisite unconsciously cringed and covered his ears. Even though it was a telepathic link, the words were as loud and the anger as palpable as it would have been had Kunzite stood right next to the young brunette.

"_Well, yes, but then it wouldn't have been as much fun for me, would it?"_ Zoisite said as he stood tall once again.

"_Screw your fun. You pretty much had me sitting there getting my as kicked needlessly,"_ Kunzite said in exasperation. He had the feeling that if he were right there he would have throttled the little punk, the fact that he saw Zoisite as a little brother notwithstanding.

"_I'm sorry. I'll make it all up to you when it's all said and done,"_ Zoisite replied with sincere sympathy. That rare facet of his personality quickly faded, and soon the sarcastic side of him returned. _"However, I did expect you to put up a bit more of a fight. I mean, you only had to go against one senshi after all."_

"_One senshi who is also the princess and has the power of the Silver Crystal at her disposal, if you didn't forget. I'd love to see you fight her one-on-one at some time,"_ Kunzite said with annoyance. _"Then we'll see if you maintain that arrogance."_

"_I guess only time will tell,"_ Zoisite said pensively. His eyes glazed over for a few seconds as he contemplated what a battle would look like given what his leader had experienced at Usagi's hands. It halfway frightened him, especially as Kunzite was much more powerful than him, although he had cunning to use as his advantage. But none of that mattered for the immediate term. He quickly snapped back to attention. _"Anyway, it seems I have some work to do. I'll see you again shortly,"_ he said hastily.

Zoisite broke the telepathic connection to Kunzite and resumed his glare at the girls far below. He removed from his jacket pocket an onyx crystal that was identical to the type he had inserted into Ami's body. He turned his floating body so that he was effectively parallel to the ground and extended both arms out from his body with the crystal suspended in between his hands. The stone immediately emitted a bright blue light that was visible against the darkening sky. The glow represented the life energy that had been extruded from Ami's body and captured by its twin sapping stone. The energy held within the stone he possessed was immense, but it was not the entirety that could have been seized.

"_Sorry we couldn't play longer, Ami,"_ Zoisite said to himself with a mostly devious tone and a wry smirk, although a small part of him wished he could leave her alive that short while longer, if only to continue his "fun."

He closed his eyes and concentrated deeply on the task of completing the energy transfer. The shine from the crystal quickly intensified, and within seconds it changed color from bright blue to brilliant gold. He tightly gripped the crystal with his right hand and brought his left hand over to help steady the wildly trembling stone. A few seconds later, and the crystal was still once again. It was also much dimmer in color, bronze as opposed to gold. He slipped the crystal into his jacket pocket and removed the pocket watch from the opposing pouch. It showed he had three minutes left before the sapping stone would have completely sucked the life force from Ami. But the time didn't matter anymore. He had Ami's life securely held in his pocket. With a raise of his arm and a puff of black smoke, he soon found himself within the realm of the Dark Kingdom.

—|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|**8**|9|—

A despondent trio of girls, Minako, Rei, and Makoto, sat in silent expectation of Usagi's arrival. They long ago had resigned themselves to the idea that they were powerless to prevent Ami's death, and that Usagi would be the only person with the ability to rescue their friend. The three of them stared at Ami's motionless body with a universally held sick feeling within their stomachs. They were fearful of the next seizure, of how long it would be, of how harshly Ami's body would flail itself against the hard ground, and of the possibility that the next seizure would kill her, thus depriving her of any chance of salvation. They would not have to be afraid of any more convulsions. Instead, their constant vigilance allowed them to witness the one thing they had hoped to avoid.

"What the hell?" Rei uttered in shock as she noticed, as did the other girls, the faint blue glow that emanated from Ami's body.

The blue light rapidly became painfully bright, forcing the girls to cover their eyes with their arms and hands. As soon as they could respond to the intense radiance, it faded to nothing more than a dull blue glow. The sudden explosion of light worried the three girls. More distressing to them was that that they could see the ground beneath Ami's body. Somehow, she had become eerily transparent. And then they realized the sad truth: their friend was vanishing in front of their eyes.

"AMI-CHAN!" the three girls yelled out in a combination of shock, horror, and despair. They could not believe what they were seeing.

They rushed over to the disappearing Ami and grabbed whatever part of her faint form they could hold as tightly as they could manage. Tears streamed uncontrollably from royal blue, jade green, and deep violet eyes. The trio of frantic girls continued to call to their unconscious friend. They wished and prayed for some form of reversal of fortune. But, no matter how loudly they shouted, the girl could not hear them. No matter how tightly they held their friend, she was not going to rematerialize in their arms. Ami Mizuno truly was gone. Seconds later the last physical vestiges of the senshi of water disappeared with a small flicker of white light.

"A- mi- chan…" Minako muttered, her voice trailing off, as she collapsed face-forward onto the grass. Her body shuddered as she sobbed uncontrollably. She was soon joined by Makoto, and the two rightly embraced and cried on each other's shoulders.

Rei turned and slowly trudged away with a pallid face streaked by tears and vacant eyes. She stared absently into space. The strength in her legs waned and she soon fell to her knees. Yet, she did not seem to be aware of that, or if she did, she clearly did not care.

"_Impossible_" was the refrain that passed through her mind over and over. She refused to believe that her friend and fellow senshi really was dead. Worse was that there was nothing at all she could do to prevent it. She was powerless against the youma and against Zoisite, and none of her abilities were remotely close to useful. And, because of that…

Inevitably Rei's sorrow morphed into severe anger. Ami was no longer with them, but that wasn't what was supposed to happen. Their supposed savior, Usagi, had not arrived as she had promised. She was the sole person with the power to heal Ami. Why didn't she show up? Rei clenched her hands into fists so tightly that her fingernails threatened to break the skin of her palms. She determined right there that she was accurate in her feelings about Usagi and in her assertion that the girl they formerly considered their leader did not care at all about Ami or the rest of them. That Usagi was as much a hindrance in their battles as the youmas themselves was a small flaw. That she pretended to be the princess and stole from her the most valuable possession in the solar system could have been forgiven, especially on that night. However, for Rei, there were transgressions for which a person could never be absolved. The fact that Usagi had failed to make an attempt to save Ami's life, especially after she was called and informed of the blue-haired girl's predicament, was indefensible. She closed her eyes and vowed, right there, that she would never forgive Usagi for letting Ami die. At that moment she wished that the blonde would disappear forever, and she did not care at all how it happened.

Rei snapped her head around in the direction of the tree line on the opposite end of the clearing. She heard the rustling of leaves, the snapping of branches, and the pounding of heeled boots against the ground as a person sprinted headlong into the opening. That person was Usagi, and she skidded to a stop just a few feet in front of the trio of girls. The blonde bent over, her hands on her knees, and panted heavily as she attempted to catch her breath.

"Where's… where's Ami?" Usagi asked in between breaths as she noticed there were only three girls there, excluding herself.

Rei did not hesitate in her response. She marched up to Usagi, roughly yanked the girl upward by her collar, and slapped her across the face as hard as she could. A bright red mark the size and shape of Rei's hand immediately appeared on Usagi's right cheek.

"You… _bitch_! You _fucking bitch_! How _dare_ you?" Rei yelled with a ferocity none of the other girls had ever seen before. It was downright scary, especially given her short temper and reputation as a hothead.

"What are you talking about?" Usagi asked innocently as she winced from the stinging pain shooting along her face.

"How dare you show up here now? You know, _after_ Ami died?" Rei cocked her hand back and slapped Usagi yet again, this time knocking her to the ground. "Bet you're feeling pretty good about that now, aren't you?"

Usagi looked down at the grass immediately in front of her. "Ami's… dead?" she mumbled almost inaudibly. All the color disappeared from her face and her eyes dimmed and welled with tears. Some of them dripped from her eyes and splashed heavily onto her slightly tattered skirt. She felt as if her heart—nay, her very soul—had been ripped from her body, only to have the void replaced by a dense melancholy. _"How could this happen? I got here in time, right?"_ she thought despondently. Soon, she was crying too heavily to even ponder that question. Her body convulsed involuntarily with each sob and, from time to time, she would release a loud wail. For several seconds she was lost to the world, buried in her own grief about the loss of the girl who was her dear friend and, for that time, her only friend.

"Oh, why are _you_ crying? _You're_ the one who effectively killed her!" Rei shouted.

The recrimination shook Usagi from her sullen, trance-like state. She looked up at the raven-haired girl with pointed, albeit dim and tear-filled, eyes. "What do you mean?" she asked hesitantly.

Rei glared at her with fire-red eyes, the typical violet overshadowed by her anger. "You know damn well what I mean. We told you exactly what was going on. We told you Ami was dying, and that she only had thirty minutes," she said more quietly, though the rage was plainly evident. Somehow her lack of yelling made her anger that much more frightening.

"That's right! Minako-chan called you, and you said you would come within fifteen minutes. You _promised_!" Makoto interjected. She balled her hands into fists as she shot a fierce stare at Usagi with piercing jade-green eyes.

Usagi turned her head in the direction of the tall brunette. "I tried as hard as I could to get here, but…"

"Don't give me that bullshit, Usagi!" Rei said pointedly as she interrupted Usagi before she could give any justification. "I doubt you even planned on saving Ami. It's a goddamned surprise you're here right now, and not sitting at Crown gorging yourself on a chocolate shake and laughing at how you managed to get rid of one of us."

"What?" Usagi said in shock and confusion as she turned to look at Rei once again with widened eyes. She grabbed a few blades of grass in her hands as she balled them into fists. "How could you even think that?"

"How could I think that?" Rei asked mockingly. She then rushed to Usagi, stopping only when they were practically nose-to-nose and sticking a finger into the face of the stunned blonde. "Look at everything you've done over the past few months! You were utterly useless in battle, being slow, klutzy and downright imbecilic. I used to think that was just your nature until you _tried to kill me!_" She put a special emphasis on the last four words.

"But that was an accident!" Usagi yelled.

"_Fuck you! _ That was not an accident and you _know_ it!" Rei shouted with passionate fury. She grabbed Usagi by the collar once again. "And _this_ was no accident either!" she screamed as she then threw Usagi to the ground. She then swiveled around, turning her back to the pigtailed blonde as she huffed and angrily crossed her arms in front of her chest.

Minako was silent ever since Usagi appeared at the park. Her mind was replaying the events from that night, from the heated discussions among the girls to her call to Usagi to Ami's eventual death. She recalled the thoughts she had right before she placed the call. It was a painful notion to have about one of her own, but she was beginning to believe its veracity and that Rei was correct after all.

"Usagi," Minako said softly but firmly, grabbing the girl's attention as she swiftly turned her eyes in her direction. "How did Zoisite know we were meeting at the park?" She stared at Usagi with intense royal-blue eyes.

Usagi's eyes widened even further. She immediately knew what Minako was insinuating by that question. The entire idea of the question nauseated and angered her. It was the last thing she would ever do to girls she wanted to call and have as friends once again. She pushed herself up from the ground and stood tall. Her eyes narrowed as she focused her gaze on Minako. "If you're asking did I tell them about it, the answer is no," she said with unwavering strength in her voice.

"How else would they have been able to ambush us?" Minako asked harshly.

"I have no idea, but it wasn't me," Usagi replied with even more determination.

"We were the only ones who knew about the meeting, and I didn't tell anyone about it," Makoto said coldly.

"Neither did I," Rei added, the anger remaining in her voice.

"That just leaves you, Usagi," Minako said. She walked toward Usagi until she was standing a few paces away from her fellow blonde. "It has to be you. Who else would do such a thing? And now that I think back, it makes perfect sense that you would stoop so low as to sell us out to the enemy."

Usagi no longer was shocked or saddened, at least externally. All of the stinging accusations that sullied her very character angered her dearly, and it made her utterly determined to defend herself and her name.

"I would never sell you out to the Dark Kingdom! Hell, in case you guys forgot, I was _attacked_ by Kunzite! That wouldn't have happened if I was working for them!" she said resolutely with her arms stiff at her sides and her hands curled into tight fists.

"So you say, but how are we to know that wasn't part of a larger deception?" Minako retorted.

"I… I can't believe you all are saying these things!" Usagi exclaimed in bewilderment.

"And I can't believe I defended you and had the audacity to say you were one of us. Fortunately, I won't ever make that mistake again." Minako sighed deeply before slowly raising her arm and pointing at Usagi. "Usagi, I gave you one last chance, and you failed. You have failed in the role of a Sailor Senshi. As the leader of the senshi, I can no longer consider you a fellow warrior. Hand over your transformation brooch now."

The sudden demand reverberated in Usagi's mind. Her entire body momentarily went limp as the shock from Minako's words went through her. It was as bad, if not worse, as what happened to her that fateful evening almost two weeks ago. She was being abandoned yet again. Worse, she was being forced to give up her identity as a senshi amid horrid accusations and in the light of her being targeted by the Dark Kingdom. Unlike that night, however, Usagi was not about to show weakness. Her response to Minako's order was a single syllable uttered with fierce determination: "No."

Minako glowered at Usagi. "The brooch, now, as well as the other stuff. And the Silver Crystal. Especially the Silver Crystal. Don't think we've forgotten about that," she said with equal resolve.

Usagi took a step backward away from the Minako's outstretched hand and the other two girls. "No, I won't. Not when the Dark Kingdom is looking for me," she replied defiantly.

Rei scoffed. "They're looking for the _princess_. They don't give a damn about _you_," she said contemptuously.

"I _am_ the princess!" Usagi insisted. Though she was correct, they weren't swayed by her declaration and she knew it.

"Just give her the stuff, Usagi. Don't make this harder on yourself than it has to be," Makoto said in a tone that was more pleading than demanding. She had a sick feeling about what would happen next if Usagi refused, and she was hesitant to do what she knew she had to do to retrieve the crystal for the princess. Yet, she was prepared to perform what she perceived as her solemn duty.

"I won't. I… can't give you my transformation brooch," Usagi uttered as she continued to slowly back away from the three. She knew what was about to occur if she refused, but she also knew the terrible consequences that would befall her if she acquiesced.

"Suit yourself," Minako said bluntly. She then turned around to face the other two girls. "Until Usagi gives up the transformation brooch and the Silver Crystal, we will consider her an enemy," she said very calmly but with sincere gravity that everyone immediately recognized and understood.

Minako proceeded to do what was unimaginable even earlier that evening. She was deadly serious with her proclamation that Usagi was an adversary, and she substantiated her words with her actions. With a stern look in her eyes, she raised her arm outward, extended her index finger, and pointed it at Usagi. "Crescent beam!" she yelled, and a moment later a golden stream of energy erupted from her finger and charged at the stunned blonde. Usagi leaped to the ground, narrowly avoiding the attack as the beam flew right past her head.

A wry, if not slightly malicious, smile crept onto Rei's lips. _"Finally, I get my revenge against that bitch for trying to kill me,"_ she thought. She brought her hands together, ignited her extended fingertips to form a large ball of red flame, and fired the burning sphere at Usagi with her shout of "Fire Soul."

Usagi rolled along the ground to evade the fire attack. As she did so, similar scenes of her former friends attacking her and her desperate attempts to dodge them appeared in her mind. She soon realized what was happening right then was a perfect reproduction of the nightmare she had only a few days ago. That horrific vision that predicted her death at the hands of her senshi was coming to fruition. She knew she couldn't run away forever, and if she tried she eventually would be killed.

"_I can't fight them, but… I can't run away either. If I run, I'll eventually tire myself out and they'll kill me. But I can never attack my friends, even if they're attacking me. How do I stop the nightmare from coming true?"_ Usagi thought while she pushed herself up from the ground.

Usagi spotted Makoto energizing her attack from the corner of her eye and spun as she sidestepped the bolt of green lightning. Even as she did so, it was clear her mind wasn't completely focused on the girls' assaults. It was preoccupied with finding a way, _any_ way, out of her predicament. She dived and jumped and pirouetted almost unconsciously for a few minutes as she effortlessly avoided the series of attacks from Minako, Rei, and Makoto. All the while a ferocious debate raged within her. She was determined to not let her dream become a fateful reality. But in reality, there was only one viable option for her, and she soon resigned herself to that fact.

"_I guess there truly is no other way,"_ she thought with a depressed sigh.

Usagi's next action stunned all three of the senshi. She closed her eyes and clasped her hands together in front of her body. Her body emitted a brilliant white light that was occasionally punctuated by flashes of pink from the ribbons that soon enveloped her body. Seconds later, the dark-pink ribbons retreated into the round brooch that was clipped to the bow of her lowly school uniform. In the heat of the battle, she had removed her transformation and was no longer Sailor Moon. Instead, she was just a normal, powerless teenage girl.

"I give up," she said softly. Her voice cracked tellingly as she spoke. She slowly moved her hand to her chest and unclipped the brooch from her uniform. She took one last, longing look it. A small tear slid down her cheek but she took care to wipe it away before anyone could see it. Even in her moment of absolute weakness and depression she knew she needed to exude a sense of strength in front of the other girls.

"About goddamned time!" Rei spat as she ran to Usagi and attempted to snatch the brooch from her.

"I'm _not_ giving it to _you_!" Usagi shouted with irritation, pulling the brooch aside and causing Rei to trip and fall in her haste. The anger soon subsided and she looked at Minako with sullen eyes, the sapphire blue at its dimmest since her mother's death. "Here. Everything you want is with that brooch," she said slowly and with a curious sense of calmness as she extended her hand toward Minako, her transformation brooch held tightly within. The leader of the senshi cupped her hands below Usagi's, and the pigtailed blonde slowly released her grip until the brooch fell into her counterpart's hands.

"Thank you," Minako said evenly. Her eyes met Usagi's. For a few seconds they just stared at each other in silence. She opened her mouth to say something, but Usagi spoke first.

"Take good care of it, as I do plan on having it back soon," she said with the same strange calmness, although by then her voice was filled with confidence.

Minako shook her head. "I don't plan on that happening," she said firmly. Her demeanor became as serious as it was when she ordered her fellow senshi to attack Usagi. Even while she raised an arm and pointed to some empty spot in the distance behind her, she never shifted her eyes from Usagi's face. "Now, please leave. We don't want to see you again, _ever_. If we do see you again, we will not hesitate to attack you like we did tonight. Consider this your only warning."

Usagi gave a single nod to Minako and directed one last pointed stare at each of the girls before turning and walking toward the opposite tree line with her head held high. She could sense the glares from three sets of eyes as she walked past and eventually out of their field of view. None of that mattered to her anymore. She was no longer part of their lives as far as they were concerned. As much as she desperately wanted the opposite outcome, she didn't want to worry herself with people who didn't care about her, not where they could see her.

—|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|**9**|—

Usagi continued walking out of the park and proceeded down one of the side streets that intersected with the main boulevard directly abutting the park. Her feet didn't stop moving until she was a few miles away from the park, and that was when she felt secure enough to drop her confident façade. She dived into an alley and dropped to her knees. The intense rush of depression and agony borne from losing Ami, Luna, and Mariko, combined with her inability to recover her valuable friendships with the other girls, completely overtook her. She started sobbing loudly and uncontrollably, and the heavy tears rolled down her pale cheeks and splashed against the cold concrete. Her weeping was loud enough to be heard from the nearby buildings, but nobody appeared to check on or console the despondent girl.

"_Dammit, dammit, DAMMIT!"_ she thought as she repeatedly pounded the tear-soaked concrete with her fists. After a few minutes, faint red spots materialized on the rough pavement. _"Why did Ami have to die? Why did Luna? Why wasn't I able to do anything to save them?"_ She ignored the pain that was shooting through her badly bruised and bloodied hands and up her arms. Her own agony was miniscule compared to what Ami must have experienced, or Luna, or Mariko for that matter. She slowly brought her hands to her chest and felt around the bow of her school uniform, where her transformation brooch would have been attached. Despite her past bravado, she knew she would never again be able to get her brooch back. She would never again become Sailor Moon. From that moment on she really was not, and never again would be, one of them. Defender of love and justice she would be no longer.

The horrific scenes of her former friends using their attacks against her that evening—with intent to injure or even kill her—played over and over again in her mind. She crouched with her back against a brick wall, pulled her knees to her chest and buried her head into them. The scenes continued to haunt her visions. _"Am I not worthy of their friendship and love?"_ she pondered sadly. The angry faces of the remaining senshi dominated her thoughts and tore at her psyche. Her miserable disposition provided its own answer to her question: _"No, I'm not. I'm not worthy of them. I was not able to save her, despite everything I tried to do. They have every right to hate me now."_

She looked up and stared into the nothingness that surrounded her with dull and lifeless eyes. She had no motivation to do anything at all for the rest of the evening except sit there and brood. Her soul felt just as vacant as that dark, empty alley. A part of her wished desperately that she could just disappear forever that night. If Kunzite or some other agent of the Dark Kingdom were to show up that moment and attempt to capture her, she felt she wouldn't put forth any resistance. Even if some lowly street thug were to notice her and try to kidnap her or have his way with her she doubted she would care much. Her chest heaved as a deep sigh escaped her lips. It did not matter what kind of misfortune befell her as there was nobody there who would miss her, not anymore.

Except that was not true. A small gleam of light and life sparked in her eyes. She had her family, and they absolutely would miss her. She realized she couldn't be so selfish as to deprive her mother and father of their daughter just because she was depressed at her failure. Even Shingo, that annoying little brat of a brother, did not deserve to go through the pain of losing a sister that, despite his behavior, he deeply loved. The thought of her family buoyed her spirits. She had to continue on, if only for them. If she could not be Sailor Moon anymore, then at the very least she could be the normal teenage girl she sometimes wished she was. She would go to school, graduate from both junior high and high school, maybe even college. She would travel the world and see the sights with her family as her mom had promised her. She would choose a career or profession and have a successful working future. Maybe she would even find a man who she devotedly loved and who faithfully loved her for her and not due to an ancient relationship from a former life. It would be difficult, and she would have to be careful as she would still be a target for the Dark Kingdom. She still was Princess Serenity in person, despite her inability to transform into Sailor Moon or her apparent lack of the Silver Crystal. But, she was determined to find happiness for her future amid the melancholy of her present. After all, as a mysterious woman said once upon a time, her fate was entirely of her own choosing.


	23. A Conversation with a Princess

**Chapter 23: A Conversation with a Princess**

Usagi slowly trudged home that late Friday evening under an utterly dark sky. Her lips held a tiny smile as she marched up a slight incline. She could see her house and its familiar red tile and bits of her mom's magnificent garden in the distance from the crest of the hill. It felt good to her to be so close to home after all of the heartbreak and agony she had experienced that evening. It was almost eight o'clock, which meant her brother and her parents should have returned from the awards ceremony. The first thing she was going to do when she walked through the door was to find Shingo and give him the largest, tightest hug she could manage.

When she finally approached her house a few minutes later, her attention was piqued by something in the driveway—or, to be more accurate, something _not_ in the driveway. She noticed the conspicuous absence of her parents' car, that familiar red hatchback. It intrigued her enough for her to check the garage just to ensure that it wasn't parked there instead of in its typical spot just outside. She opened the side door of the garage ever so slightly, as if she were afraid of accidentally releasing something from behind the barrier, and peeked inside. The car was not there.

"_I wonder where they went,"_ she thought with some confusion.

She closed and secured the garage door and entered the house through the locked rear door using the key she always had in her possession. The house was unoccupied, as she expected. She walked into the kitchen and reached for the handle to the refrigerator. Her eyes widened slightly when her hands came into view and she saw the specks of dried blood covering her otherwise healed knuckles. Her hands had stopped hurting a long time ago despite having been brutally and repeatedly struck against the pavement with incredible force.

"_Strange… I guess I still have healing abilities even if I'm no longer Sailor Moon,"_ she reasoned.

After washing her hands under the kitchen sink, she opened the refrigerator and searched for something readily available to eat. The large container of gumbo from Wednesday night was still there, although there was significantly less of it remaining due to her voracious appetite after the practice session with Ami that previous night. She removed the container from the refrigerator, grabbed a bowl from one of the cupboards and a spoon from a drawer, and scooped some of the gumbo into the bowl. She then wondered how she was going to heat her "snack," as cold sausage did not taste very good. Fortunately they had a microwave, but she did not know for how long to heat the food in the microwave, at least not initially. She closed her eyes and concentrated, attempting to remember the times her mom would usually reheat food using the device.

"I think… two minutes sounds about right," she whispered hesitantly as she opened the door to the microwave and inserted the bowl. _"Oh, and I think she stirred the stuff midway through if I remember correctly,"_ she thought as she closed the door.

Two minutes and some stirring time later, she removed the bowl from the microwave and set it upon the table in the dining room along with a glass of water. She sat down in her usual seat and began to slowly eat her dinner, taking small scoops from the bowl. It was a remarkable difference from two nights ago, when she effectively vacuumed the gumbo from the bowl into her stomach. That might have been because she was still preoccupied with many things, not the least of which the death of her dearest friend.

"_Ami-chan, I'm so sorry I failed you,"_ she thought sadly as she rested the spoon on the table. _"If you can hear me somewhere, wherever you may be, I hope you can find the strength in your heart to forgive me."_ A tear dropped from her eye, slid down her pale cheek, and splashed lightly against the large wood table. It was soon followed by several more tears. She pushed the half-eaten bowl of gumbo aside and laid her head on her arms.

"_How could I have let that happen to her?"_ she asked herself as she began to fall into severe melancholy once again. _"I could have saved her. I _should_ have saved her. As usual, I screwed up everything, and now she's dead. I guess I'm truly as useless as they said I am."_ Her entire body began to tremble as she submerged herself deeper and deeper into misery and self-loathing. _"I can't do anything right. I'm completely worthless. No wonder nobody wants anything to do with me, especially now."_ There was a brief pause in her increasingly despondent thoughts before she added: _"Including me."_

Somewhere deep in her mind, another voice desperately called out to her. It was a hopeful voice that somehow broke through the thick fog of despair that had engulfed her.

"_It's not your fault! You did everything you could do to escape from Kunzite and rescue Ami, but he wouldn't let you go until it was too late!"_ the mysterious voice shouted.

Usagi lifted her head from her arms. Her tears had slackened somewhat, although they still fell pretty heavily. Nevertheless, that voice had achieved its desired effect and captured her attention.

"_Don't blame yourself! You had to fight against Kunzite! You never would have been able to get to the park any other way!"_ the voice yelled. The shrill pleas sounded suspiciously familiar.

"_But, I could have left the studio much sooner. I should have realized Kunzite was weakened enough for my escape far earlier than I did."_

"_No! There was no way for you to know, not that easily. His energy was being replenished, so you had to constantly attack him until whoever was helping him ran out of energy."_

"_But that's not what happened. He wasn't being helped, not anymore. I should have noticed,"_ Usagi thought with a dejected mood.

"_And how would you have noticed without doing what you did? What other way would you have been able to figure out Kunzite was being weakened without constantly attacking him?"_ the voice pointedly asked.

"_I…."_

Usagi paused for a moment and reflected on her battle with Kunzite. She knew that the leader of the Shitennou would not have wasted any opportunity to launch a massive counterattack at her if she tempered her assault. She couldn't have allowed that to happen to her. Furthermore, part of her plan at the time was to see how well Kunzite responded to each of her blasts. She realized that, at first blush, he was getting up from the ground with the same wry smirk on his face and with the same apparent vigor. He had maintained an effective façade of strength during her battle with him. Only much later, when Mamoru suddenly appeared at the studio, was she able to determine Kunzite was far weaker than he let on. But it was not fair for anyone else to blame her for failing to recognize his vulnerability, and it was doubly unfair for her to blame herself.

"_I don't know…"_ she replied hesitantly within her mind.

"_So, you see, you can't blame yourself. You can't blame yourself for anything that happened to Ami, Luna, Mariko, or anyone else,"_ the voice implored.

Usagi pondered what the mysterious voice told her for a few seconds. By that time her tears had fully stopped, and a tiny gleam had appeared in her sapphire-blue eyes. That voice, whoever it was, absolutely was correct. She couldn't blame herself for the actions of the Dark Kingdom. They were the ones who had attacked her friends and killed them, not her.

"I can't blame myself," Usagi whispered aloud with utter determination. Whoever was lifting her spirits had succeeded marvelously. But then, that lead to a major question.

"_By the way… who are you?"_ Usagi asked in the only way she knew to communicate with the owner of that voice.

"_Usagi, I am you. Or rather, the _other_ you."_

That reply briefly confused the pigtailed blonde, although she quickly recognized who it must have been. It also answered her other, unpronounced question of why she was able to talk so easily with the peculiar voice in her mind.

"_Princess Serenity?"_ Usagi asked timidly.

"_Yes, that is right," _the voice, now identified as that of Serenity, replied firmly.

The reply only further flabbergasted Usagi._ "But, how are you able to talk to me like this? And how am I able to talk to you?"_

"_Normally, I am not able to express myself separately except under circumstances of extreme danger or when I am specifically summoned. That is the consequence of us effectively being the same person. Many of the times I am summoned, it is only to provide my powers and my abilities, but your personality would be the one that people will see."_

"_Huh? What do you mean by that?"_

Serenity sighed, which made Usagi feel very strange when she heard the exhalation. _"For example, when you summoned me before Sailor Mercury, I was able to provide to you my appearance and my enhanced skills with the Silver Crystal. But, I was not able to replace your personality with mine, or even express myself in any way beyond what I had just described."_

"_But what about when I met with Queen Serenity? For some reason, once I realized who she was, I did not feel like I was in complete control of myself or my emotions. That was you, right?"_ Usagi asked solemnly.

"_Yes, that was mostly me. I'm sorry, but I couldn't help it, especially since it was the last time I would ever see my mother again. I _had_ to let myself talk with her,"_ Serenity said sadly. Usagi swore she could hear a light sobbing in her head, as if Serenity were crying. The princess paused for a moment, as if to collect herself, before continuing.

"_There were two other times where I was able to express my personality,"_ Serenity said softly. _"The battle in Luna's training simulation, where she somehow messed up and gave you the second hardest enemy the kingdom had ever seen, at full strength. Selene bless her heart, I know she didn't mean to do that, and don't blame her, especially now. It's just that, if I didn't show up when I did, both of us would have been killed."_

"_I remember that, or at least what Luna told me about it,"_ Usagi said with uncertainty.

"_I don't expect you to remember the actual event, as I had completely overtaken your personality by then,"_ Serenity said. Usagi unconsciously nodded in reply, although the person to whom she was speaking shared her physical body.

"_So the other time was when…"_ Serenity suddenly paused in her explanation, confusing Usagi yet again.

"_Hmmm?"_ she asked innocently.

"_I'm sorry, Usagi,"_ Serenity whispered sorrowfully. That sudden apology from her alternate self stunned Usagi. _"I'm so very sorry for what I did, what I almost did, what I could have done to you. I almost completely destroyed your future because I was being childish and selfish,"_ she said as she started to cry yet again.

"_What do you mean?"_ Usagi asked.

"_It was when you met with Endymion—Mamoru, I guess you'd call him. I knew what you were trying to do and why you were doing it,"_ Serenity replied in a soft, sob-filled whisper. _"I knew you were only pretending. But, when Mamoru said he no longer loved you, that he no longer even liked you, I believed that Endymion no longer loved me. I fell into a depression so profound that I felt I couldn't go on anymore. So, when you held the blade, I was so despondent that I urged your body to plunge that knife into yourself just so I could vanish and not have to deal with the pain of losing his love, not caring at the time what that would have done to you."_

"_Serenity…"_ Usagi said gently as she heard the princess's sustained weeping.

"_But, somehow, you were able to suppress my desperate mindset and not only save yourself from me, but save me from myself,"_ Serenity said with a lighter tone although she continued to cry. _"It was the unique power of your personality that managed to rescue me. I knew how deeply you loved Mamoru. Your love for him was as strong as my love for Endymion."_

"_But, was that nothing more than a relic of the past?"_

Serenity sniffled a few times as her tears slowly dried. _"No, you truly loved Mamoru, without my influence. Granted, it was fate, and probably the wish of my mother as well, that allowed Endymion and me to find each other, and Mamoru and you to meet. But, after that, you fell in love with Mamoru on your own… _eventually_."_ If Usagi could see the princess, she would have seen a small but warm smile on her lips.

"_I see…"_ Usagi gave another unconscious nod of her head.

"_And so, when I saw that you could live without Mamoru, I realized that I could survive without Endymion,"_ Serenity said confidently. She then sighed and returned to a more dismal tone. _"Which is just as well, given the uncertainty of my future."_

"_What? What do you mean? What's going to happen to you?"_ Usagi asked anxiously.

"_Don't worry, Usagi. It's nothing major. It's just that I'm going to disappear soon,"_ Serenity said calmly.

Usagi could not believe what she was hearing in her mind. The princess… was disappearing? That was an unfathomable occurrence, especially after everything that had transpired in her life and in the lives of her friends with the sole purpose of saving the princess. If she were to vanish, then all their struggles and agony would have been for nothing.

"_I can feel your nervousness, Usagi. You really shouldn't worry, not for my sake,"_ Serenity said tenderly. She then released a pleasant and harmonious laugh, which made Usagi feel warm inside. _"It's not like I'm dying. On the contrary, once I disappear, the past will finally be complete, and you can finally assume your full identity as the modern Princess Serenity."_

"_I'm not Serenity now?"_ a very perplexed Usagi asked.

"_You're not _fully_ Serenity, not until I disappear and you gain full control of the Silver Crystal to use in accordance with your own personality, not the personality of some ancient being. You will no longer have these strange feelings whenever I come forth. You can finally live your life."_ Serenity paused momentarily and chuckled. _"And, let's be honest, don't you feel just a _little_ strange right now?"_

"_Um… maybe a tiny bit, but not too much, I guess. I don't know,"_ Usagi said within her thoughts with predictable uncertainty. _"On one hand, I find talking—or should I call it thinking—with you very easy, while on the other hand I feel like I'm going insane."_

"_I think the familiarity comes from the fact that I've been with you for so long, your entire life, really. But the time is soon arriving whereby you need to assume the full power that lays dormant within you, and I will be nothing more than a hindrance,"_ Serenity said calmly with a light sigh at the end.

"_How will I know when that time will come, and what will happen to you?"_ Usagi asked apprehensively.

"_You will know when you see Sailor Pluto."_

"_Sailor Pluto? What does she look like? How will I know when I see her?"_

"_As you've seen her once already, you should be able to easily recognize her again. Anyway, when you do see her, you will finally gain your full stature as the sovereign Princess Serenity the Fifth, and I will be with my mother."_

Usagi frowned when she heard Serenity mention rejoining her mother. She remembered the misery she, or rather her princess alter-ego, had experienced when she last met the late queen. _"But, you said you weren't dying!"_ she exclaimed with palpable distress.

"_I'm _not_ dying,"_ Serenity said resolutely. _"I can't die because… I was never truly alive, at least not in this era. I am the latent spirit of the original princess that remained with you in order to guide and protect you before you can fully become princess. It was another wish my mother made on the Silver Crystal."_

"_When… when did you… die?"_ Usagi asked hesitantly.

"_I died during Beryl's final assault on the Moon Palace,"_ Serenity replied with a sad sigh. Recalling her last days brought her great anguish, and the many years that had passed failed to assuage the misery. However, she felt it was necessary to tell Usagi the history of that fateful day. She began to relay her story in a low, sad voice while the blonde listened attentively.

"_The palace grounds were being overrun by youmas, hundreds of them,"_ Serenity said glumly. _"The palace guards were no match, and despite their incredible valor they were effectively slaughtered by the monsters. The inner senshi were there, fighting desperately in an ultimately futile attempt to push the youmas back. All the while Queen Beryl stayed in the back, beyond the reach of any of the senshi's attacks. I can still see the wretched smile on her face as she surveyed the carnage she created."_

Serenity paused for several to collect herself, lest she start crying furiously at the memory she was about to convey next.

"_Then, the senshi started to fall, slowly, one by one at the hands of the Shitennou, the most powerful generals the Earth had to offer. Mercury was first to die, and without her ability to assess the battle and find the enemy's weak spots, our resistance soon crumbled. Mars was next, followed by Jupiter and finally Venus. At that point, my mother realized that all would have been lost without the use of the Silver Crystal. It was fortunate that she used the crystal when she did, when the senshi's deaths were still recent, as it allowed her to transport their precious souls into the future without much damage to them. It was the only way they could be reborn in the present time."_

"_So, she used the crystal to transport them so they could be reborn. But what about you?"_ Usagi asked with the intention of a soft, solemn whisper.

"_I was brought to the present time in the same way, by the use of the Silver Crystal. I'm sure you have had some dreams or occasional visions of what happened during that time, right?"_

Usagi reflexively nodded. _"I've had some dreams of that day, but strangely I can't remember how you died."_

Indeed, she was eminently familiar with the sporadic visions she would receive at night. Some nights she would recall large fractions of the ancient battle scene, while other nights she would only see snippets of the overall sequence of events. Yet, the one thing she never was able to see well was her own death as the princess. She knew she had died before she was transported to the future, but she never could remember specific details.

"_Well,"_ Serenity said before taking in a large breath of air and slowly exhaling it, _"the reason you don't know about that was because I was blocking that incident from your memory."_

"_Why?"_ Usagi asked incredulously, if not harshly.

"_Because I felt it was too traumatic for you to experience at the time,"_ Serenity replied softly, feeling a bit of remorse following Usagi's sudden rebuke.

"_But I could already figure out that I, or rather you, had died. What could be more traumatic than that?"_

"_It wasn't that I died, but who killed me, that made it too distressing to tell you."_

Usagi thought for a few seconds. She easily understood the insinuation that it wasn't anyone from the Dark Kingdom that killed her, but she couldn't think of anyone else who, having done the deed, would have upset Serenity so badly, except…

"_Was it Endymion?"_ Usagi asked cautiously.

"_No. It wasn't him,"_ Serenity replied somberly. _"He was already dead by then, killed by Beryl in her jealous rage at him for falling in love with me and for deciding to marry me instead of her. That was the event that precipitated the whole war, the war in which he was killed in a desperate final attempt to keep Beryl from entering the room where my mother and I tried to hide."_ She took another deep breath before she spoke again. _"No, it was my mother who killed me."_

"_You were killed by your own _mother_?"_ Usagi asked in utter shock. Tears threatened to stream down her face as she pondered how someone who appeared to be as fair and loving as Queen Serenity could kill her own daughter. _"Why would she do that?"_

"_It was the only option she had left to save me,"_ Serenity said dejectedly as she fought back her own tears. _"If Beryl had killed me, there wouldn't have been much of a soul left to transport into the future, and if there were a soul it would have been severely damaged. She was just that powerful, especially with the power of Queen Metalia at her disposal. Furthermore, I couldn't kill myself as that would have completely eliminated my soul for all eternity._"

Serenity paused as the pain of the horrific memory overwhelmed her. Usagi could readily hear sniffles and occasional moans in her head as the distraught princess struggled to maintain some semblance of composure.

"_I know in my heart she did not want to do it," _Serenity whispered hoarsely between her sobs._ "I know she wanted to spare me the immense sorrow and the shock of having my death be by her hand. She prayed for some other way. We both did. If the Shitennou had gotten to me that would have worked just as well, and my mother would then have been able to transport my soul here without the utter pain and guilt she ultimately experienced. However, they were ordered to stay back. We were trapped with Beryl herself bearing down on us. So, she did the only thing she could do."_

Serenity paused yet again for several moments before she found the strength to continue.

"_At times, I can still feel the blade as it passed through my body. I can see the pristine white of my gown slowly turn red with my own blood. But, the worst thing I remember, and what I constantly struggle to forget, is the look on my mother's face immediately afterward. Her eyes were completely dead and vacant, and her face, if not her entire body by that point, was almost as pale as her dress. I feel she desperately wanted to turn the blade on herself right then and there. The only thing that stopped her was the arrival of Beryl. That reminded her that she killed me in order to save me."_

Serenity could not withstand for any longer the deep anguish she harbored and descended into a sustained crying spell. A few tears escaped Usagi's eyelids and rolled down her cheeks, but as depressed as she felt hearing Serenity's story, she fully understood why her mother had done what she did. It was a heartrending action borne from the ultimate love she had for her child. That did little to mitigate the awfulness of the incident as Serenity's uncontrollable weeping plainly revealed. Usagi thought it best to let the princess continue until she released the entirety of her long-held suffering through her tears. It seemed like something she had been aching to do for longer than the teenage blonde could ever imagine.

"_So, then, after she killed you, she used the Silver Crystal to transport everyone's souls into the future?"_ Usagi asked several minutes later as she dabbed the tears away from her cheeks with a nearby napkin.

"_Yes. That was her main priority, although she made many other wishes on the Crystal at the same time,"_ Serenity said softly. _"My being here with you was one of her wishes, as was her ability to see us one last time in the future. Of course she used the Crystal in an attempt to seal away Queen Beryl and Queen Metalia. I figure the reason the seal was so weak and they were able to eventually escape was that my mother was so anguished by what she had to do in order to protect my future that she lacked the necessary energy to put into the Crystal. That probably also led to a few other mistakes."_

"_Like me being Sailor Moon,"_ Usagi remarked dryly.

"_Yes, that would be one of them, although in hindsight it doesn't look like that big of a mistake. If we had a senshi as powerful as you at the time Queen Beryl attacked, I think the outcome would have been quite different,"_ a suddenly wishful Serenity said.

"_But I'm no longer able to become Sailor Moon,"_ Usagi said mournfully.

"_I know. I hope the other senshi eventually realize their mistake, and soon."_

"_I doubt that will change anything. Even if they figure out they need my power, if that's even true, they'll continue to hate me. I don't think there is anything I can do to make them love me or be friends with me again."_

Serenity remained silent for a few moments, deep in thought, before responding. _"Unfortunately, that very well may be true in terms of how the remaining senshi will regard you,"_ she said in a low voice full of disappointment. Her tone soon strengthened and revealed more resolve as she attempted to motivate Usagi. _"However, you should not doubt your power, ever. Remember, you single-handedly fought one of the Shitennou and, had it not been for that mysterious outside influence, you would have beaten him handily. I doubt the other senshi are quite that capable, not at this point in time."_

"_So, what do I do? I can't transform, and I don't even have the Silver Crystal anymore. I may have had that much power before, but now I'm just a normal girl."_

"_You will be quite surprised at what you are still capable of doing,"_ Serenity responded in a hopeful, almost mischievous tone that slightly confused Usagi.

"_And what would that be?"_ Usagi asked anxiously.

"_I can't tell you. That is something you'll have to figure out on your own,"_ Serenity said playfully. Usagi could infer from the princess's lively tone that she no longer was depressed, which delighted her. She was slightly annoyed by the fact that Serenity obviously was hiding something from her, but she would rather have the ebullient Serenity over the dejected Serenity any day.

"_Mou, I hate secrets, especially from beings inhabiting my own body,"_ Usagi said with some irritation, but really she was teasing the princess more than anything.

"_That's one secret you're just going to have to live with not knowing about for a while,"_ Serenity replied with a bit of melodious laughter at the end. That happiness proved contagious and soon Usagi found herself laughing aloud along with the princess. Luckily, she was alone in the house or else people would have been extremely curious about her sudden bout of laughter.

"_Anyway,"_ Serenity continued once the mirth subsided, _"to answer your previous question, you live your life, the life you truly wanted to experience, as well as you can. That means that we'll have to leave the fighting to the senshi for now and believe in them and hope they are successful. As painful as it is to let them go, if they refuse your friendship, then I think you would be far better off persevering without them than struggling in a futile attempt to win them over. You're fortunate to have a family who loves you dearly, and that should help you greatly. You also have other friends to help you, Naru in particular."_

"_How do you know about Naru-chan?"_ Usagi asked innocently.

Serenity sighed, although this time not in dejection but disbelief that Usagi had not considered the obvious possibility. _"Oh, Usagi… just because I'm not able to express myself and my personality except in the most extreme situations doesn't mean I'm not able to see, hear, and feel everything you do,"_ she said with a hint of annoyance.

"_Ah… I see,"_ Usagi replied as her cheeks flushed brilliant red.

"_So, as I was saying, you have shown once before your ability to endure under such difficult and painful circumstances,"_ Serenity said. _"You would do so yet again with all the help and support of the people you have around you who truly do love you: your friends and your family."_ She paused for a brief moment as she had fallen into deep contemplation. _"Speaking of family, you were in the process of wondering where they were before I interrupted. Given that you're feeling much better now and you're not about to do something harmful to yourself, I think I'll depart and let you get back to detecting their whereabouts."_

"_Wait… That was the reason you appeared, because you thought I was going to hurt myself?"_ Usagi asked in shock.

"_Far worse than that, to be honest. I was afraid you were going to succumb to the depression into which you were sinking as a result of your guilt. And yes, that was the impulse that allowed my personality to be expressed once again,"_ Serenity said calmly. _"However, I believe that I don't have to worry about that anymore, now that you understand you were not responsible for Ami's death and that you truly have much more to live for."_

Usagi smiled as she knew the princess was absolutely correct. She reaffirmed the solemn promise she made to herself that she would live and find happiness within her life as a normal girl.

"_So, Usagi, I feel that it is now time for me to depart,"_ Serenity said softly with a bit of sadness in her voice. _"I don't know whether we will be able to interact in the future like we have done tonight. In fact, I believe in my heart the next time the full power of Princess Serenity is evoked, it will be entirely of your own doing, and I will be no more."_

A pang of sadness shot through Usagi. _"Would it be fair for me to say that I absolutely will miss you?"_ she asked delicately.

"_Only if you allow me to say that I will miss being with you as well,"_ Serenity replied somberly. _"However, as I said previously, it is your true destiny, and it is proper that I step aside when that time comes. In any case, I am happy, truly happy, that we had the opportunity to talk."_ By that time her voice had started to fade, and it was clear Serenity's ability to speak with Usagi was diminishing.

"_I am happy that we could talk as well,"_ Usagi replied. Her eyes automatically widened slightly as she felt the Serenity's presence gradually disappear from within her mind.

"_Adieu, Usagi. You are and forever will be Princess Serenity, and you are far more capable than you know. Always remember that,"_ Serenity said as resolutely as she could, although by then her dulcet voice was very faint.

Usagi was about to respond but realized that saying anything else in her mind would have been futile. Serenity was gone. Her soul had not completely disappeared from within Usagi's body, but the power that allowed the princess to speak with the former senshi had run its course.

"Serenity…" Usagi whispered aloud as she sighed wistfully.

As strange as it might have appeared, it truly was the case that she had just engaged in a lengthy conversation with an ancient magical being with whom she shared a body. It was the first time she had an opportunity to know the princess of the Silver Millennium at a far deeper level than what she could gleam from her conversations with Luna. She wished that the princess was a real person, a separate person she could talk to more frequently and maybe befriend. Serenity effectively was a complete stranger to her, and despite the fact they shared one body the ancient monarch-to-be knew everything about her whereas she knew almost nothing about the princess. She knew that was never going to happen. The Serenity of old was going to disappear someday soon and she would ascend to the role and acquire the immense power of the Serenity of new.

Suddenly she bolted up from the table. In all the time she was immersed in her conversation with the princess she had lost track of time. Thirty minutes had elapsed and her parents and younger brother still had not arrived home. She instinctively looked for her shoulder bag and her cell phone, running around the kitchen and living room for a minute in a fruitless search until she remembered her bag and all its contents were destroyed by Kunzite. That meant she no longer had a cell phone, and she no longer had an easy way to call her parents. She couldn't remember the numbers to either her dad's or her mom's cell phones if her life depended on it. Furthermore, and probably more importantly in her case, was the fact she had no phone, at all.

At that point in time there were two things that, in combination, were an absolute godsend for the young blonde. The first was that she had an identical copy of all the numbers stored in her phone backed up and accessible via the Internet. It was a service of the carrier and not something she was responsible for maintaining, else it never would have been updated. After all, her more-responsible persona did not emerge until about two weeks ago. The second was that, for some reason unknown to her up to that night, her father maintained an old-style landline telephone. Though the phone itself was relatively modern, the technology behind its operation was downright antiquated in her mind and she questioned why they would need such a phone in the days of ubiquitous cell phone coverage. Her dad had the foresight and experience to understand that having more than one method of communication available was a benefit. She found herself grateful for her dad's prudence as she grabbed the wireless handset and ran up the stairs to her computer. About a minute later, she had scrawled both her dad's and her mom's cell phone numbers on a piece of paper she tore from a nearby notebook and was about to punch in the numbers to her mother's phone.

_* BRIIIING - BRIIIING - BRIIIING *_

The loud ringing noise emanating from the handset startled the girl, causing her to drop the relatively large and heavy object onto the floor. She had never heard the thing ring before in her life and thus never knew what sound to expect. It was loud enough to wake her from a deep sleep if the phone were placed in her room, which was a magnificent feat by itself and a good reason—in her mind, at least—it was located in the living room. Another cascade of chimes from the handset alerted her that someone was calling and told her that it was a good idea to at least consider answering the phone. She picked the receiver up from the floor and glanced at the call information that appeared on a small screen. She did not recognize the number, but she did recognize the name of the caller: _Azabu-Juuban Second General Hospital_. Her eyes widened and a chill shot through her body as she tentatively pressed the call answer button.

"Hello?" Usagi said timidly.

"Hello. I am Doctor Mizuno from Juuban Second General Hospital," said the anxious and hurried, yet simultaneously authoritative voice of an older woman. "I am speaking to Usagi Tsukino, right?"

Usagi was completely shocked for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which were that she was receiving a call from the hospital and that the caller was Saeko Mizuno, Ami's mother. But, the thing that immediately surprised and confused her was why Saeko immediately assumed she was talking to her instead of asking for her.

"Yes, I am Usagi, Mizuno-sensei," she replied with apprehension creeping into her voice.

She heard a worried sigh through the handset. "I'm so glad I was finally able to get in contact with you, Usagi-san. I tried calling your cell phone a number of times over the past hour, but I could not get through," Saeko said worriedly.

"I'm sorry, Mizuno-sensei," a remorseful Usagi whispered. Although she was referring to her inability to be contacted, she might as well have been apologizing to the esteemed doctor for the loss of her daughter.

"Don't worry about it, Usagi-san," Saeko replied. "The important thing is that you get to the hospital as soon as you can. I have something very important I need to tell you." She was straining to maintain her calm voice in light of the knowledge she held and desperately wanted to relay to her daughter's best friend.

Usagi gulped loudly. As soon as she heard the phone ring she felt something was amiss. The absence of her family from their home so late at night, followed by the sudden phone call from the hospital, they all added up in Usagi's mind to a terrible conclusion.

"Did something happen to my family?" Usagi asked somberly, her voice cracking slightly as if she were on the verge of tears.

There was a pause of a few seconds before Usagi heard Saeko's nervous voice again. "Can you make it to the hospital within the next fifteen minutes?" was all she asked.

"Yes, I can," Usagi said softly.

"Please come as quickly as you can. When you get here, ask directly for me. They'll know where to guide you," Saeko said hastily.

Before Usagi could say anything else she heard a click through the speaker of the handset that was followed by utter silence. She dropped the phone to the floor and it landed solidly against the hardwood floor with a loud thud, but she did not care about the large hunk of plastic. She could get a new phone if it was damaged. The only thing in the entire world she considered important at that moment was getting to the hospital on time.

She was determined not to make the same mistake twice in one day.


	24. Confessions

**Chapter 24: Confessions**

Usagi's heart pounded furiously within her chest as she ran through the automatic sliding doors and into the main lobby of Azabu-Juuban Second General Hospital. Part of her increased heart rate was due to the fact she sprinted the entire distance between her house and the hospital. At a normal walking pace, it would have taken her twenty minutes to make it to the hospital. She arrived in fewer than ten minutes. However, she was used to running to school all the time in desperate attempts to not be late and avoid detention, and she had greatly enhanced stamina from her training sessions with Luna when she used to be Sailor Moon. To put it another way, she was used to running so far for so long. The main reason her heart was so active was that she was extremely nervous about what she would see and what she would be told once she stepped through the doors and met with Dr. Mizuno. In her mind and in her heart, she knew the reason she was at the hospital was that her parents and brother were there, and she feared they were in severe danger, or worse.

Of course, in order to meet with her late best friend's mother, she would first have to find the esteemed doctor. She was not familiar with the interior of the hospital as it had been eleven years since her last visit. That time, her mother was giving birth to Shingo. She was only three years old then, and paying close attention to the layout of the hospital rooms and passageways was the last thing on her young mind. And, despite her rampant clumsiness and penchant for colliding with hard objects, among other things, she was extremely lucky to not injure herself to the extent to require hospitalization. Fortunately for her the front desk was very close to the main entrance so she didn't have to go far to find it. In a move that certainly surprised the three people sitting at the desk and the several other doctors, nurses, patients, and visitors milling around the lobby, Usagi sprinted at full speed for the desk and did not stop until she essentially crashed into the large structure. Needless to say, it appeared to be an inauspicious start to her first hospital visit in a decade.

"Umm… hello? May I help you?" one of the attendants, an older woman dressed in light blue hospital scrubs, asked nervously as the sudden loud thud and jostling of the desk yanked her attention and her eyes up from the computer and onto a young, frantic pigtailed blonde.

"Hi," Usagi said with far greater apprehension in her voice as she panted heavily. She tried to remember what special thing she needed to do in order to find the doctor, but could not recall anything. Instead she just decided to ask to speak directly to the doctor and hope they didn't make her wait or, worse, become suspicious of her and turn her away. "May I see Doctor Saeko Mizuno?" she asked with uncertainty.

"She is a very busy person on normal days, you know, and even busier now given the craziness that's going on tonight. What purpose do you have in seeing her?" the attendant agitatedly asked in response, her reaction provoked by the abrupt disruption.

Usagi looked at the brown-haired woman with wide eyes that revealed her dismay. "She called me just a few minutes ago and told me to come here as quickly as I can," she replied softly amid her continued panting.

"Hmmm… And what's your name?" the attendant asked flatly.

"Usagi Tsukino," Usagi replied hurriedly.

The attendant looked down at her desk at a stack of notes, many of them messages and directives from the multitude of doctors and nurses the hospital employed. It only took her a few seconds to find the light yellow form in her handwriting that was a message she transcribed from her recent conversation with Saeko.

"Usagi… Ah! Yes, that's right. We just got a message from Mizuno-sensei a few minutes ago telling us that you would be coming and telling us that we should direct you to her office as soon as you arrived," the attendant replied in a friendlier tone. She pulled a hospital map from one of the plastic stands that sat on top of the desk and opened it up. "I don't know what happened, but she sounded quite worried when she called us. It kinda freaked me out when I heard her, as she's not usually like that," she said casually.

Usagi could almost feel her heart drop through her stomach as she listened to the attendant speak. Whatever it was definitely involved her family and had to be serious enough to break Saeko's normally unflappable disposition. Whatever gleam that had remained in her eyes up to that moment rapidly disappeared and her entire face went ghastly white. Her body began to tremble ever so slightly.

"I… I'm sure everything will be alright," the attendant hastily added with some remorse upon noticing Usagi's abrupt shift in demeanor. "Anyway, Mizuno-sensei's office is here—" she first encircles, then points to a room on the map with a ballpoint pen— "in room 311. Do you think you can get there on your own, or do you want one of us to show you the way?"

"Um…" Usagi turned her eyes up from the map and glanced around the lobby. There seemed to be a confusing mix of hallways that went in every possible direction. She knew there had to be some logic to the arrangement, and if she weren't in her present state she might have figured it out quickly, but she was way too tired and anxious to make sense of it all. Her eyes went back to the grey paper map. "I think I may need some help," she said with disappointment.

"Very well." The attendant turned around and gestured to another, far younger woman by comparison who also was decked in hospital scrubs, although she wore light pink instead of blue. The younger woman jogged to the desk and stood attentively right behind her senior.

"Katase-san, would you please take Tsukino-san over to Mizuno-sensei's office. It's very important she gets there quickly," the attendant said gravely.

"Very well!" the younger woman said as she bowed, her jet-black hair covering her face. She then ran around the desk to where Usagi was standing. "Just follow me," she said earnestly as she began to realize, merely by glancing at Usagi's deadened eyes and pale face, how important it was to get the suffering blonde to her destination in a hurry.

About two minutes later, Usagi found herself standing in front of the door that belonged to Saeko's office. The attendant who guided her did what she considered a marvelous job of directing her around the traffic of doctors, nurses, and patients that seemed to clog the hallways. It was strange, however, that the hospital was so busy. Not that she knew exactly how busy the hospital should have been on normal days, but the words from the desk attendant rang in her mind. She raised her hand to deliver a knock and was startled when the door opened before any of the knuckles on her balled fist touched wood. Her eyes widened as she stood frozen right in the threshold and in the path of a tall, stately woman with very short dark-brown hair. That dignified lady had a calm demeanor about her—or about as calm of one that could have been expected given the chaos the hospital was thrown into that night and the news she had to give. She also had very quick reflexes, as she ground to a stop right before colliding into the cowering Usagi.

"Usagi-san!" Saeko exclaimed with surprise. Her auburn eyes enlarged when she caught sight of Usagi, whose presence caught her slightly off guard. Of course she expected to see the young girl, but she was shocked at how soon Usagi managed to make it up to her office. "Come in, come in!" she said hurriedly, ushering the girl into her office with a gentle hand upon her shoulder.

Usagi tentatively sat in one of the chairs while Saeko softly closed the door and walked to her seat behind a large, white desk that was littered—albeit in a completely organized manner—with paperwork. The blonde looked around the rather small office with a nervous expression on her face and in her eyes. Saeko expelled a deep, sad sigh. It always was difficult to talk with relatives of patients, despite her training and many years of experience. It was significantly more difficult when the person was the girl who had ended her daughter's persistent loneliness and showed her how truly great friendship could be. The only thing that helped her was that, as awful as the news she was about to deliver to Usagi appeared, had certain crucial events not occurred she would have been forced to tell a much sadder story.

"I'm happy you were able to come so quickly, Usagi-san," Saeko started. Usagi gave a slight nod of her head in response. "I regret that I have to deliver such bad news to you," she said softly and as comforting a tone as she could produce given the circumstances.

Usagi hung her head downward and felt the tears automatically collect at the bottom of her eyelids as soon as she heard the words "bad news." So much had happened to her in the span of that single day, so much terror and agony and death, all of it unbeknownst to Saeko, that the utterance of those two words filled her with dread. Thoughts of the worst possible things that could have happened to her family clouded her mind and slowly filled her with depression. However, as improbable as it would seem, those images soon disappeared from her head and were replaced by an even worse notion. She was just about to discover what happened to her parents and younger brother. Whether it was merely bad news or the worst possible news, she was about to find out. On the other hand, Saeko would never find out what happened to Ami. She would never know that her daughter was killed, and that she died fighting to protect the planet from immense evil. All she would know is that one day her daughter—her only child—suddenly disappeared, never to be seen again. That idea shook Usagi worse than anything Saeko would say next.

"Usagi-san, your parents and your brother were involved in a very bad automobile accident," Saeko said carefully, already noticing the tears that threatened to stream down Usagi's pale cheeks. She paused for a moment to consider what to say next. "I do have some good news to give you, and that is they're all alive. By some miracle, they all managed to survive," she said.

An imperceptibly tiny smile came to Usagi's lips and a small, yet marvelously brilliant shine returned to her sapphire-blue eyes. That was the best news she had received all day. Her family was alive. She would be able to see her father, her mother, and even that nuisance of a younger brother again. What Saeko had to say next almost did not concern her as she knew that if they were alive, then they were going to be just fine. She would do everything within her power to make sure that remained the case.

"However," Saeko continued in a soft and delicate tone, "they were badly injured in the accident. Your mother and brother are in better condition. They only suffered some broken bones and some second-degree burns over small regions of their bodies. Otherwise they are stable. Your father is worse off, with several broken bones and third-degree burns across his legs. He should be fine, but as of right now he's in the intensive care unit."

"I'm happy," Usagi whispered as a tear slowly slid down her cheek. She continued to hang her head.

"What was that?" Saeko asked innocently as, in full honesty, she barely heard what Usagi had muttered.

"I'm happy that my family is alive," Usagi said with a relieved sigh. The smile on her face grew faintly larger and brighter. "I know that as long as they're alive, they are going to be alright."

Saeko looked at Usagi with a perplexed expression. On one hand she was happy that the girl was hopeful. She knew from her daughter that one of Usagi's main strengths was her ability to retain a sense of optimism no matter what terrible situation she had to encounter. However, the injuries she had described, even when allowing for the lack of a detailed description, were far from trivial. A broken bone could prove fatal if not recognized early and treated properly, and therefore she figured Usagi could not afford to be so blithe about things. She closed her eyes for a moment and shook her head.

"_What an amazing spirit,"_ Saeko thought as she considered Usagi's reaction. _"She is right, though. They will be absolutely fine, especially here at this hospital and with me and the other staff treating them."_ The confused look that overtook Saeko's countenance proved to be fleeting, and soon it was replaced by one of confidence.

"I figure you will want to see them," Saeko said gently as she stood from her chair and walked around her desk to stand alongside Usagi. She tenderly placed a hand on Usagi's shoulder and gave her a small but very warm smile.

The blonde looked up at Saeko and slowly nodded. "Yes. Definitely, I want to see them," she whispered.

"Well, you can find your mother and brother on this floor," Saeko said. She gestured for Usagi to follow her as she walked out of her office and into the hallway. "They're in a patient's room that is pretty much just around the corner from my office." The pair quickly walked down the hall, Saeko leading the way and Usagi trailing just behind her. They soon found the room barely a minute after leaving the office.

"Well, here is the room," Saeko said. She looked down at Usagi and smiled once again, drawing a similarly genial smile in return. "I'm sure you can stay as long as you'd like. Given that it's late and quite dark outside, I would recommend that you stay the night here with them. If you do stay, make sure to ask one of the nurses for some pillows, though, as the chairs are pretty uncomfortable after a while."

The smile vanished from Usagi's lips and a shot of panic coursed through her system when Saeko slowly turned and started to walk back to her office after the woman gave her a small nod. She had been deliberating within her mind what to tell Saeko about Ami while she walked with the admired doctor to the room. Clearly, Ami's mother would learn that Ami had disappeared, and soon. The first people she would want to talk to were her closest friends. In her heart, she knew she would have needed to tell Saeko that Ami was dead, but how? Would it have been prudent to reveal Ami's true identity to her mother, especially since it would have required that Usagi reveal her secret identity as well?

"Mizuno-sensei, are you going to be here for a while?" Usagi asked hesitantly and with a concerned look in her eyes before Saeko could walk away. The doctor stopped and turned around to face Usagi once again.

"Normally I would, but I took some time off this weekend so that I could spend a little more time with Ami." She gave a heavy, disappointed sigh. "I know I spend a lot of time working and I don't get to see her very often, which saddens me as much as I know it depresses her," she said slowly. "I'm very fortunate that you all are able to spend time with her, and I am grateful that she can call you and the other girls friends. But I also realize that I need to spend some time with her, especially during this time of her life. So, that's why I'm leaving early today and reducing my hours over the weekend."

Usagi lowered her head. _"I guess I have no choice but to tell her now, and to tell her everything,"_ she thought resignedly. _"The last thing I can do is have Mizuno-sensei go home with the expectation that she'll see Ami when Ami is no longer with us."_

"What's wrong, Usagi-san?" Saeko asked tenderly as she readily noticed Usagi's dejected mood.

"It's… It's just that… I have something very important that I need to tell you," Usagi stammered in a voice no louder than a whisper. She closed her eyes and attempted to calm herself by taking a huge breath and momentarily holding it before gradually exhaling it.

"What is it?" a confused Saeko asked.

"It's about me… and about Ami," Usagi said softly. She reached for the handle with a trembling hand and slowly pushed open the door to the room where she found Ikuko and Shingo lying in their respective beds and surrounded by monitoring equipment.

"What about Ami?" Saeko asked, her puzzlement growing by the second. For some reason, she had this strange foreboding sensation that was triggered by Usagi's overall glum disposition. She had an inkling that what the blonde would tell her was far, far worse than what she just relayed about the accident, although her mind refused to consider such ideas.

"I'll tell you in here," Usagi replied as she stepped into the room.

The two walked into the room, with Usagi moving about cautiously and her eyes scanning the room as if she were searching for something or someone that was about to attack her. She gave warm smiles to both Ikuko and Shingo when she saw them lying in their beds partially covered in bandages but otherwise awake and fine. However, she was far from the bubbly, effusive girl that Saeko knew. That might have been a consequence of learning of her family's near-death experience with the accident, she reasoned. Yet at the same time, she determined that practically anyone would show a bit more liveliness and joy upon seeing close family members alive and appreciably well after such a traumatic event. Saeko found Usagi's behavior odd at best, and she was conflicted as to whether the news the girl was about to give her was useful or a sign of a troubled mind. Usagi then slowly returned to the door and pushed it shut, securing it with a deft turn of the deadbolt lever. Her actions further confused and worried Saeko, and by this time Ikuko and Shingo were equally alert and gazing intently at Usagi with wide sepia and dark-green eyes.

"Is there any way to cover this window?" Usagi asked guardedly as she pointed at the large pane of glass that readily allowed the nurses and other passersby to see into the room.

"Why would you need to do that?" Saeko asked with suspicion.

"I… I can't let anyone else see what I'm about to show you," Usagi replied meekly, her eyes pointed down at the light blue tile adorning the floor.

Saeko and Shingo stared at Usagi while giving her dumbfounded looks. Ikuko was less confused and surprised at the request. She knew, almost instinctively for some reason, that there was something mysterious going on with her daughter, above and beyond what she had learned about the conflict brewing between Usagi and her friends. As she carefully pushed herself up within her bed to obtain a better view of her daughter she figured she would discover many more secrets, and that not all of them would be pleasant.

Saeko sighed nervously. "I guess, if anything, you could cover it up with a pillowcase," she said with resignation.

"You can use my pillow," Ikuko said softly. All eyes were drawn to her when she spoke.

"Thank you, mama," Usagi said gently as she slowly approached the bed. She managed to maintain her composure until she was a few feet away from her mother. When she could see more clearly the injuries her mother had sustained from the accident, the tears started to flow from her eyes almost uncontrollably.

"Usagi, dear, I'm going to be just fine. It's just a few broken bones. They will heal and I'll be back to normal," Ikuko said calmly with a hand resting gently on Usagi's shoulder. Usagi nestled closer to her mother and embraced her in a loose hug, being careful not to aggravate any injuries.

"I know, I know…" Usagi said with sniffles as she attempted to squelch her tears. She didn't want to be a crybaby anymore, and she had worked so hard to be and to act more mature. To break down at the sight of something so relatively minor began to infuriate her. "I'm not going to cry now," she whispered intently.

A brief smile flashed across Ikuko's lips and she tightened her embrace of her despondent daughter. "I know that you want to present yourself as more of an adult, Usagi," she said tenderly, "but there are times in which it's definitely okay to express your emotions. This, I would think, is one of those times."

Upon hearing those words, Usagi ceased her attempt to halt her tears, and the warm droplets fell down her face with an even greater frequency than before. In her heart she knew she didn't need to cry over that, as everyone would be shedding far greater tears over the information she planned to reveal later. But it was too late to do anything about them, and so she just allowed them to fall. She continued to hug Ikuko for a few more seconds, whispering in her ear "I love you" and receiving the same words before releasing the embrace. Her next move was to run to Shingo and wrap him in an even tighter hug, which was possible only because he had sustained fewer injuries.

"And I love you, Shingo, even if you can be a real pain in the neck some of the time," she said. The boy's eyes widened for a moment when he heard that, and then narrowed to their normal size. He lifted his arms and draped them around Usagi to return the embrace.

"Heh, you know I can't have my only sister have it _too_ easy," Shingo said playfully as he tightened the hug. "And yes, just so you can't say I never said it before, I love you too," he added with impressive sincerity.

Usagi smiled brightly and slowly pulled back from the hug a few seconds later. Her tears finally had abated, and she felt as happy for that as she felt relieved to finally see her mother and brother. She desperately wanted to see her dad as well, and wished he could be there with them when she revealed her secrets, but she knew he was too hurt from the wreck and that was an impossible request at the time.

"Here's the tape, Usagi-san," Saeko said as she reached into the pocket of her lab coat and removed a small roll of clear tape and tossed it to the blonde.

"Thank, you, Mizuno-sensei," Usagi replied as she deftly caught the roll of cellophane. She lifted the pillowcase over the window and pulled a few strips of tape from the roll to secure the white fabric in place. Her hand lightly patted the case to check that it fully covered the glass and obscured the view inside.

"Now," Usagi said with calm resolve as she turned around to face the group, "what I'm about to say and show you may seem strange and completely unbelievable, but I assure you that all of it is true." She turned her head down and glanced at the floor. "Even though I wish some of it wasn't true," she added sadly.

Usagi stood there in silence for several seconds as she took several deep breaths. She was finally about to do what she wanted to do for so long, and what she felt she absolutely needed to do. She was going to release herself from the massive burden of the secret she had kept for several months. However, she was also going to reveal much more. She needed as much strength as she could muster as she was going to do one of the most difficult things she had ever done in her life. That included the fact she had just battled Kunzite alone earlier that evening. She lifted her head and looked up at her mother, brother, and the esteemed doctor with steely eyes. The sudden change in her manner astounded everyone.

"I'm sure you all have heard of the Sailor Senshi," she started with a brave yet calm voice. Everyone slowly nodded in utter, focused silence and stared at her with widened eyes. Usagi took one more deep breath. "Well… I'm Sailor Moon."

Those words elicited a sharp gasp from Shingo, a pointed glance from Saeko, and a gentler stare from Ikuko. They never imagined the concept that Usagi, the girl that was seen by so many as clueless, ditzy, klutzy, and totally ordinary teen—and at one time she was—could be the heroic Sailor Moon. Well, two of them couldn't believe it. But then she had more shocks to deliver, particularly for Saeko.

"Well, I _was_ Sailor Moon, but I can't transform anymore," Usagi quickly added.

"How can we believe you if you can't show us?" Saeko asked with piercing logic.

"Now I can clearly see where Ami-chan got her intelligence," Usagi said with a slight smile and awkward chuckle. "You're right, I can't transform into Sailor Moon, but I do have one more identity that I hope I can show you."

She paused for a moment and closed her eyes as she calmed herself and delved deeply into her soul. Upon achieving her serene state she made one more request to access the solemn powers of Princess Serenity. Her body emitted a faint pink light that slowly grew brighter and brighter as she prayed inaudibly. That alone shocked everyone, even Ikuko. A minute later, Usagi was swathed in a sphere of intensely bright white energy, forcing the other three to cover their eyes or turn away. The sphere exploded with a massive blast of wind that swirled around the room, blowing papers and other loose objects about and completely frightening all three spectators. At the end of all the commotion, Usagi stood in stately silence in the middle of the room. Her opalescent white gown, trimmed in brilliant gold, flowed delicately around her comparatively small frame.

"Wh… What just happened?" an utterly stunned Shingo asked hesitantly.

"This is my other identity, that as Princess Serenity," Usagi replied evenly as she looked around the room at the two blank stares and one peaceful gaze that were locked on her figure.

"Wait… So that's what I saw before…" Shingo muttered inaudibly. He recognized the dress that Usagi was wearing, as he had seen her wearing it once before. But he had no idea that it effectively belonged to a whole different individual.

"Princess Serenity?" Saeko asked in amazement.

"Yes. Otherwise known as the princess of the moon," Usagi answered evenly.

"It… It makes sense," Ikuko said softly as she pointed a warm smile at Usagi. "I figured there was something special about you, and that it was more than just the fact you were my daughter."

Usagi gaped at her mother and the cool demeanor she displayed in astonishment. "How did you know? How could you find out? I mean, I wanted to tell you for so long, but I haven't done so until now," she blurted almost frantically.

"It was in a dream I had, a very strange dream that happened just a few days ago, Monday night if I remember correctly," Ikuko said. "I had visions of a serene, majestic woman who wore a beautiful white gown similar to yours, but with wings attached for some reason. She also had hair in the exact style of pigtails you've always loved to wear since you were very little, but it was silver. But what really got me were those eyes. Those eyes were identical to yours in every possible way."

"That was Queen Serenity, my other mother," Usagi said with renewed calm, although she understandably felt very strange inside saying that to the woman who, by all accounts, indeed was her mom.

"I see," Ikuko said with a light smile. "Anyway, she started to speak to me with an awfully sad voice. She said she was deeply concerned about the daughter she was going to see for the last time. But the strangest thing was what she said next. She requested that I take very good care of you and try my best to ensure your safety. I was confused. I didn't know whether or not I could talk to her, but the words just flowed out automatically. I asked her why she was so concerned about my daughter." Ikuko paused for a few moments. "She looked at me with those hauntingly beautiful eyes of hers and told me that she was asking me to take care of _her_ daughter, not just mine. Before I could ask her anything else she disappeared, and I woke up."

"_She came to visit you the same night I went to see her,"_ Usagi inaudibly whispered to herself.

"Ever since that night, I could feel a warm energy radiate from you whenever you were around," Ikuko said. "It was quite faint, but I could sense it. I could also sense it from Ami and that toy cat you always had with you, although there it was much harder with both of them."

"That was Luna, and she would not have appreciated being called a toy," Usagi said with a smile that soon evaporated as she thought about her dear friend and advisor's death. "She very much was a real cat, and a talking cat at that. But more importantly, she was the one who found me and let me know I was Sailor Moon."

"Wait," a bewildered and perplexed Saeko interjected, "so you're saying that Ami is just like you?"

"It's not just Ami," Usagi replied with stunning calmness. "All of my friends—or former friends as it seems to be now—are senshi. Minako is Sailor Venus, Makoto is Sailor Jupiter, and Rei is Sailor Mars."

The words that passed through her lips greatly startled everyone, but the shock of the admissions ultimately was short-lived. In hindsight it all seemed so blatantly obvious. The girls with whom Usagi hung around all the time had to be senshi as well.

Usagi looked toward Saeko with remarkably dim and miserable eyes, completely different from the calm blue orbs she possessed only moments before. "Ami was Sailor Mercury," she said glumly.

"_Was?_" Saeko asked nervously. Usagi nodded slowly.

"I would like to say just like I was Sailor Moon, but it's not the same," Usagi whispered dejectedly. She trudged over to the corner of the room where Saeko was standing and gently lifted one of the doctor's hands with her own.

"Well? What happened to my Ami? Tell me," Saeko pleaded as she looked down at what should have been a resplendent young princess. Instead, her auburn eyes saw a miserable girl that was, to her credit, trying as hard as she could to maintain her composure in light of whatever terrible knowledge she held in her mind.

"Mizuno-sensei, you may want to sit down for this," Usagi said gently as she carefully guided Saeko to one of the chairs alongside the inner wall. It was not long before tears started to well in her eyes yet again. This time, she did not try to fight them and allowed the heavy drops to streak down her cheeks. When she saw that Saeko was seated she took a deep breath in one last desperate attempt to collect herself before delivering the bad news.

"I'm… I'm sorry, Mizuno-sensei," Usagi whispered as she fell to her knees in front of Saeko and began sobbing heavily and uncontrollably. "I… I tried to save her… I did everything I could to save her."

Saeko was caught off guard by the dismal sight of Usagi's sudden inexorable depression. She bent over and tenderly placed her hands on Usagi's drooping shoulders. "Tell me, please… What happened? I won't be angry at you. I promise," she said caringly.

A series of sniffles and wails emerged from the crouched girl whose magnificent white gown contrasted sharply with her dull, lifeless eyes and unnaturally pale and tear-stained complexion. Moments later, Usagi found enough strength to overcome her weeping, if only briefly, and to speak once again.

"Mizuno-sensei," Usagi said with a hoarse voice, "Ami's… Ami's… she's dead."

Saeko felt all the blood rush from her head and an ominous chill encase her entire body as the words passed through her ears and into her consciousness. Ami, her only child, was dead. It was the last bit of news she ever wanted to hear, even for a person who was experienced with delivering such news on occasion. The depth of sorrow that Usagi might have felt in delivering the news practically was nonexistent compared to the absolute agony that Saeko suffered right then.

"A- mi…" Saeko uttered in a chillingly low whisper as she let herself fall from the chair to the cold, hard floor. She was at a complete loss for words and would not find the strength or composure to speak, or shift her attention to anything other than thoughts of her departed daughter, for almost an hour.

Usagi closed her teary eyes and slowly shook her head. She felt just as powerless to save Ami's mother from plunging into the horrific abyss called despair as she was to save the Mercurial senshi from the intractable evil of the Dark Kingdom.


	25. Life on the Run

**Chapter 25: Life on the Run**

Doctors were human too, and as many times as they had inured themselves to expressing emotion over human tragedy, they often were as vulnerable to grief as anyone when put in the unfortunate situation. In this case, the situation was the loss of a loved one, a daughter who, although not often seen recently by the person who lost, was deeply loved. The person in question was the esteemed doctor Saeko Mizuno, and within the span of a minute that night she had just learned two things about her dear child Ami. The first was that her daughter was one of the legendary Sailor Senshi, in this case the soldier of water Sailor Mercury. To say it was a shock to discover her daughter's precious secret, of which she was completely in the dark for a length of time she could not fathom, was one thing. The second, however, completely overshadowed the first, and understandably so given the gravity of the news, news that left her a ruined being.

The patient's room was utterly silent, save for the sounds of mourning, for several minutes after Usagi informed Saeko of her daughter's death. She didn't have an opportunity to provide any more insight into how Ami died—not that she had any more knowledge about it than what her former friends had told her. All she could do, and all anyone could do, was just sit there and watch the incessant, agonized sobbing of a heartbroken mother. Unfortunately, she was all too familiar with being both a spectator and a participant of such sorrow, and she fully understood what the doctor was going through.

It was a full hour before she could have the audience of all three again. As painful as it was to contemplate there being more to her story, there indeed was much more she had to say. First was a brief summarization of the origins and purposes of the senshi based upon what she could remember Luna telling her and her experiences fighting the beings from the Dark Kingdom. Next, and far more important, was a full and honest retelling of everything that had occurred to her since the day her friends and Mamoru initially abandoned her. She told them of her largely successful, yet futile, quest to improve herself as a warrior and as a young woman, her arguments and eventual reconciliation with Ami, the true reason why the girls had forsaken her, the plan she and Ami had conceived to recover those lost friendships, and her battle with Kunzite. This particular part of the story fully captivated Ikuko as she finally learned why Usagi's personality had changed so drastically almost overnight. Her daughter gradually opened up to her more and shared more of her personal pain, culminating with the confession that all of her friends—the other senshi—had left her. Despite the slow revelations, she had no inkling of the effect Usagi's suffering could have had on the survival of the entire planet until that night's explanation.

However, none of that compared to the next thing the princess had to tell them.

"Kunzite… Kunzite knows who I am… He knows I am Usagi as well as the princess," she said hesitantly as she slowly glanced over each of the three stunned people in the room with sullen blue eyes. "I'm sure the Dark Kingdom knows the true identities of the other girls as well. What I don't know is how he found out." She smoothed out the navy-blue skirt of her school uniform and sat down in the chair next to her mother's bed with a glum face. She had long ago dropped her transformation.

"So… if they know who you are, it is possible they know who we are as well," a sage Ikuko said with strange calmness given the haunting implication of her words. Shingo turned a worried gaze toward his mother.

"But, how could they know?" Usagi nervously asked. "It's not like you all were involved in any of the fights."

Even though she was not completely attentive given her depressed emotional state, Saeko was alert enough to be genuinely useful in the conversation. "You may have fought with Kunzite elsewhere, but after every fight you inevitably returned home, right?" she said in a coarse whisper.

"Um… maybe…" Usagi mumbled as she reflected on her previous battles and the aftermath.

"In that case, maybe they saw you when you transformed and then followed you home. That would be what I would do if I were in that position."

"But we tried so hard to keep our identities secret! We always made sure there was nobody around whenever we changed."

If there was anything that Saeko was expert at, it was using her innate logic to solve almost impossible problems. Her brilliant mind, along with her hard work, made her one of the top doctors at the busy hospital. So, despite feeling the crushing anguish of her daughter's death, she put her mind to work and, with awe-inspiring deftness, proceeded to solve how the Dark Kingdom identified the senshi. Besides, she figured it would be useful to Usagi and a tribute to her daughter's sacrifice if she could provide even the slightest assistance to the senshi.

"And how do you do that?" Saeko asked with a firmer voice.

"Well… we look for empty locations such as alleys to hide in so that we know nobody can see us," Usagi replied.

"And do you search the area beforehand to make sure nobody is there?"

"Yes, usually…" Her voice trailed off a bit. She began to feel nervous, not because of the pointed questions Saeko threw at her but the implication that she had overlooked something and thus put everyone she knew and loved at risk.

"How thoroughly do you search?"

"Well, of course we look around," she said softly, suddenly unsure of her responses.

"And up as well?"

That incisive question threw Usagi off completely. She scrunched her nose and furrowed her brows in apparent deep contemplation, but she knew in her heart that Saeko had her beat. There was a reason Ami was such a genius, and it went well beyond her history as a senshi. She soon relaxed her expressions, turned her head downward and slowly shook it.

"Not usually," she replied with a tone of resignation. "But, we never really had a reason to look up," she added a few moments later.

"And I'm sure that's what the Dark Kingdom took advantage of in order to learn more about you. After all, you did say that Kunzite was looking specifically for you," Saeko said.

Usagi sighed. "Yes, he was, and he still is," she said dejectedly. Tears welled up in her downcast eyes as she balled her hands into tight fists that gripped the bottom of her skirt. "And now, because of my carelessness, he not only knows who I am and who the other girls are, but he probably knows all about you as well." The tears soon began to fall down her cheeks.

It was Saeko's turn to sigh. Her intention was not to make Usagi feel stupid or make the young blonde feel any more depressed than she already was. All she wanted to do was provide what little insight she could into how the leader of the Shitennou could gain such critical information. She had no true knowledge about what happened, so she only made an educated guess based on what she heard from Usagi and what she determined she would have done. In doing so, however, she could sense she had inadvertently hurt the girl.

"I'm sorry," Saeko said with utmost sincerity. "I didn't mean to accuse you of anything or make you out to be irresponsible or, worse, put all the blame onto your shoulders."

"It's okay, Mizuno-sensei," Usagi replied almost instantly after Saeko finished speaking. She looked up at the doctor with dull eyes that only held a shine because of the moisture from her tears. "I know you weren't trying to make me feel bad." She whisked a few droplets from her cheeks with the back of her hand. "But it's still my fault, and it's something that I have to deal with somehow."

Ikuko looked over at her crestfallen daughter with calm sepia eyes that belied the distress and fear she truly felt. She wasn't afraid for herself, even though she had a sense that the incident that sent her family to the hospital was more than a mere accident. Everything about the crash just felt wrong. The car seemed to have a life of its own and Kenji was unable to gain control of the vehicle until the last second as it swerved into the opposing lanes of traffic at speed. It was a miracle, she thought, that her husband was able to slow the car enough and turn it so that the truck with which it collided hit the rear of the car instead of the front or side. Furthermore, there was a brief, almost imperceptible, flash of white light right before the car seemed to lose control and a similar flash seconds before the impact. At the time, she couldn't begin to understand what had happened, but as she witnessed Usagi's confession and heard her stories about the evil that was the Dark Kingdom she slowly came to a realization. The knowledge that Kunzite knew the civilian identities of the senshi only strengthened the recognition. However, despite all of that, she was more afraid of what her daughter would have to face given she had no way to fight, no senshi to help her, and a very determined enemy still targeting her.

"Honey, I know you feel bad about what may have happened, but don't think you have to handle it alone," Ikuko said gently. She would have reached over to hug Usagi, but the injuries made it painful to stretch her arm the necessary distance.

A startled Usagi raised her head and swiftly turned it to look at her mother with widened eyes. "You can't!" she complained loudly. "You can't get involved! You have no idea just how powerful they are, and how ruthless they are!" Her voice started to wobble as fear overtook her original emotion of surprise. "If something were to happen to you all because you tried to help me, then I don't think I could live with myself anymore."

Ikuko smiled warmly. "You're my precious daughter, Usagi, just like Shingo's my precious son. I would do anything within my power to keep my children safe," she said tenderly but with absolute conviction. "I may not have the magical powers that you had as Sailor Moon and have as Princess Serenity, but I'm sure I can contribute in some way." The smile then vanished and she sighed deeply. "Besides, it looks like we're already more involved in all of this than you would want," she said solemnly.

"What? How?" a perplexed Usagi asked.

"The accident we were in, I'm convinced it wasn't really an accident but an attack," Ikuko said calmly. "Our car moved like it had a mind of its own when it accelerated and crossed the center line, sending us into the oncoming traffic. Right before it did that I saw the car become enveloped by a bright white light, though it was only for a split second. I then felt a sort of strange energy that was completely different from what I feel from you. It was cold and dark. I had no clue at the time why I felt what I felt, but now I believe that it was an attack from the Dark Kingdom that you described."

The color drained from Usagi's face and her trembling body began to sweat all over, giving her the appearance of someone who had just turned violently ill. She immediately recognized that the Dark Kingdom absolutely had to be behind that crash. Spontaneously her mind replayed the last encounter with Kunzite in a desperate search for any clues as to why her enemy would suddenly attack her family instead of her directly. She then remembered the chilling words that Kunzite spoke at the outset of their battle. He mentioned the "other people" of importance Usagi might save if she gave up and allowed herself to be captured. The moment her mother spoke of the weird incidences surrounding the car crash, she realized that Kunzite was referring to her family.

"If I had just gone with Kunzite, none of this would have happened," she whispered as she stared at the blank tile floor.

"No," Ikuko said resolutely in a startling rejection of Usagi's line of reasoning. "We may have ended up hurt, but you _absolutely_ did the right thing." Her tone then softened and she spoke more gently to her daughter once again. "If you had gone with Kunzite, the whole world would have been in mortal danger. You know as well as we do that you would not have allowed that to occur."

Usagi looked up at Ikuko and her mother's soothing eyes and began to feel a sense of calm wash over her. "You're right," she said as her shaking slowly ceased. Her face then became scrunched in bafflement as she pondered aloud what they could possibly do next.

"Obviously we can't stay in our current house," Ikuko said evenly despite the sudden shift in their lifestyle that she was advocating. "We will have to move somewhere else… maybe my sister's place for the time being until we can find another home."

"How can we be sure that Kunzite won't just follow us?" Usagi asked in a worried tone. "He knows who I am, so if he sees me again he'll just follow me to our new house. Everything that's happening now will just happen again."

"That's true," Ikuko replied with a light sigh. She looked up at the ceiling deep in thought as she searched her mind for a better plan.

"Ikuko-san, how far away does your sister live from Tokyo, if you don't mind my asking?" Saeko asked, momentarily shaking the injured woman from her thoughts.

"Unfortunately she's lives pretty far away from here, in Kyoto," Ikuko replied.

"I'm familiar with that area. That may not be such a bad thing, so long as Kunzite is unaware that we've left," Saeko said.

"Wait, _we_?" Usagi asked as she noticed Saeko's peculiar wording.

Saeko nodded. "Ami was my daughter, and even though she's no longer here, it doesn't necessarily mean that I'm not at risk," she said with tears forming in her eyes and threatening to fall yet again at the thought of Ami. She managed to keep them at bay as she continued. "Since she was your friend, and for the while your only friend, I'm sure she would have helped you with anything. In that spirit I feel that it's only reasonable that I do the same, especially considering that you have a long move ahead of you."

"But will you be able to leave your work at the hospital?" Usagi asked innocently. "There are so many people here who need your help."

That question elicited a strange, nervous chuckle from Saeko. "There are other doctors here, so I don't think I need to worry about that. Besides, I've been so busy working as a doctor here for so long that I've almost forgotten what it was like to be away from this place," she said rather sadly while staring at nothing in particular. "I was going to spend some of the vacation time I accrued to, as strange as it may sound, get to know my own daughter once again. Funny, that… Now, I have about two months of time that I can take off, and in light of everything that has happened I think I'll use all of it." She turned her auburn eyes to Usagi. "I don't mind helping you with this, as you've done so much more to help my Ami than I can even begin to imagine," she said solemnly.

"Thank you so much, Saeko-san," Ikuko said with a warm smile directed at the doctor.

"It's nothing, really," Saeko replied humbly with a nod of her head and a slight smile of her own.

Saeko then stood from the chair and walked purposefully to the front of the room. As she looked over the three other people sitting and lying before her with a pensive look on her face, it was apparent exactly what she was doing. She was doing what she was trained to do and what she loved to do: taking control of a difficult situation and solving an almost intractable problem. "Now, if the Dark Kingdom, particularly those of the Shitennou, are as you describe, then they'll probably figure out that you all are still alive and will plot another attack against you. I think it is best that we work as quickly as possible and as discretely as possible to prevent any chance of them finding our whereabouts," she said determinedly.

"_Wow! I can definitely see shades of Sailor Mercury in Ami-chan's mom,"_ Usagi thought to herself as a small grin crept onto her lips. _"The only difference is she's way more assertive than Ami-chan."_

"Now, I grew up in Kyoto, and my parents still live there, so I know the city well," Saeko continued. "My parent's house is fairly large and they have a number of guest rooms you could use for a while. They're very nice people and I know they will not mind you staying with them. I can arrange for the transfer of some of your belongings first thing in the morning, if you want."

"Really?" Usagi asked in amazement. Saeko nodded in reply.

"I would very much appreciate it," Ikuko said softly. "I know Kenji would be a bit surprised, but once he learns about everything that Usagi told us I'm sure he would be supportive of the move."

"Well, I'll make sure that happens tonight," Saeko said firmly. "I'll put some calls through to some moving companies and some old friends of mine." She focused her gaze onto Usagi. "Now, Usagi-san, your mother and brother likely will be here for a few more days and your father likely will stay here a few weeks longer," she said with a calmer tone. "That means you'll need a place to stay, since you will not be going back home anymore. You can stay here tonight or you can come home with me when I leave in about an hour or so. I have a guest room in my house with a bed you can use before everything from your place is moved."

Usagi looked over at Ikuko and Shingo, then back at Saeko, with a look of consternation on her face. Her eyes narrowed as she contemplated what option she should take. Part of her wanted to stay with her parents and brother and look over them, fearing that they might be assaulted again by the Dark Kingdom. On the other hand, she was not very fond of the hospital chairs, and she knew she would have had to sleep in one—or at least attempt to—for several hours if she stayed, whereas Saeko offered an actual bed in which to sleep.

"We'll be alright, honey," Ikuko said to Usagi gently. "You can go with Saeko-san for the night."

"Yeah, I'd take the bed over the hard chairs any day," Shingo chimed in with a bit of a wry grin.

Usagi looked at Ikuko and Shingo one more time before making her decision. "O-okay, I'll go with you, Mizuno-sensei," Usagi replied, although with some hesitation as she was still partly unwilling to leave her family alone that night.

"Good. I'll make sure to take good care of you," Saeko said with a tender smile. She walked toward Usagi and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. "And you don't have to be so formal. You can call me Saeko-san."

Usagi gave Saeko a brief smile before the pleasantries were interrupted by a sharp grumbling of her stomach. She remembered that she didn't have much to eat that entire evening, only a half-finished bowl of gumbo that she would never have an opportunity to complete.

"Um, Mizu—I mean, Saeko-san, is there somewhere to get food here?" she asked with a slightly embarrassed look on her face and a loose grasp of her stomach with one hand.

Saeko gave a light-hearted chuckle at the sight of Usagi's expression, which in turn elicited a small pout from the blonde. "I'm sorry, I probably shouldn't laugh," she said softly after noticing Usagi's displeasure. "Anyway, there's a pretty large cafeteria located on the ground floor. It's open twenty-four hours as this place is busy all the time. There are plenty of signs pointing to it, so it should be easy to find." She paused for a few moments before grinning. "The food actually is pretty good, which is surprising for a hospital."

Usagi stood up and was halfway to the door before Saeko remembered that the young girl would be isolated from them and rendered vulnerable once again. "Oh, one more thing, Usagi-san!" Saeko exclaimed, stopping Usagi in her tracks. The doctor reached into her pocket, retrieved her cell phone, and tossed it to Usagi, who slightly bobbled it but made sure not to drop it. "The number to my office is programmed into the phone so you can call me, and of course I can call you from my office phone," she said nonchalantly. "If you want to call this room, just replace the last three numbers of my office number with the room number. And I figured since you don't have your phone that you also don't have any money on you, am I right?"

Usagi blinked for a few seconds, knowing in her mind the brilliant doctor was correct, before she nodded her head affirmatively in reply. Her wallet was destroyed along with her phone and whatever else was stuffed in her shoulder bag when Kunzite blasted it in an attempt to kill Luna. There was going to be an unavoidable and horribly annoying process of replacing all the possessions she lost in that battle.

"That's okay, since the phone is linked to my account. All you have to do is wave the phone over the scanner and it'll pay for the meal." A stern look came to her face. "Just don't get carried away with it," she said, before her features softened once again.

"T-Thanks," Usagi stuttered as held onto the phone as tightly as her fingers could grip the mass of plastic and metal. She didn't have a pocket into which she could slip the phone so she reminded herself to keep a hand and an eye on it as she pulled open the door and walked out into the hall.

—|1|**2**|—

Usagi studied the menu that she held somewhat unsteadily in one hand while the other hand had a death grip on the cell phone. For all that Saeko said about the food being appetizing, she was uncertain about whether she actually wanted anything they had to serve. Her eyes scanned the menu up and down, and up once again. Part of her indecision stemmed from stories she had heard from her friends about how awful hospital food tasted. On the other hand, the people who told her that were patients at one time, and she had never been a hospital patient as far as she could remember. As klutzy and uncoordinated as she was for most of her life, she was also extraordinarily lucky to not injure herself to such an extent as to require hospitalization.

She felt her stomach growl again and could have sworn she heard it rumble as well. Despite the obvious message from her body that it needed food and the fact she knew in her mind she should eat something to recoup all the energy she spent while furiously fighting that evening, she could not will herself to just pick something and eat it. It was ironic that someone who had a voracious appetite most of the time just could not eat. Whether it was latent depression from all the tragedy she had experienced within a scant few hours or the fear of even more calamity following her that stemmed her desire to ingest food she did not know. But she found herself sighing deeply and pacing slowly back and forth near the entrance of the ordering line while loosely holding the menu in front of her face.

"_I know that on any given day I'd have any of this stuff, or maybe even all of it, but I just don't feel like any of it right now,"_ she reflected as she came to a stop near a short wall that divided the line from the remainder of the cafeteria. She bent over slightly and dangled her folded arms across the top of the wall and then laid her head atop her arms, her golden pigtails falling to the floor. It resulted in a pitiful scene of a depressed, hungry, and altogether miserable girl. In her melancholy she failed to recognize the young woman that slowly sauntered up to her.

"If I were you, I would choose this one," the woman said as she laid a slender finger upon one of the menu items. "It's not a traditional Japanese meal, but I somehow sense that you're not limited to such things," she said in a melodious voice that ended with a light smile.

Usagi slowly turned her head over her shoulder and saw, with ever-widening eyes, what she considered to be the most beautiful and elegant woman she could have ever imagined. And that was after seeing all of those awfully pretty girls at both of Mariko's and Azusa's photo shoots. The lady who had so kindly accosted her had wavy hair of a unique shade of turquoise that fell to her shoulders and harmonized well with the pale-aquamarine evening gown she wore. She was tall—not as tall as Mariko, but certainly as tall as Makoto, who Usagi at times considered a giant. The most striking aspect of the stranger was her eyes. Those stunning and yet equally calming cobalt blue eyes immediately captured Usagi's gaze.

"Oh, I didn't mean to startle you," the woman said gently as she averted her eyes from Usagi's. "It's just that I noticed you were standing there for an awfully long time with that menu and yet you haven't ordered anything."

Usagi snapped out of her trance and bowed demurely in front of the woman. "I-I'm sorry if I b-blocked the line," she said shyly.

The woman took a step back from the startled blonde and smiled. "You weren't blocking the line." The expression on her face changed to one of worry. "I know this is a hospital, but you appear especially troubled. May I ask what's bothering you so?" she asked politely.

"It's… I'm just worried about my family is all," Usagi said carefully, not willing to divulge too much to the woman who, despite her apparent kindness, was a complete stranger.

"Oh?" The woman replied in a tone that was mostly inquisitive but partially incredulous, as if she recognized there was a bit more to the story than she was told.

"My parents and younger brother were in an auto accident and were injured. My dad had the worst of it," Usagi said in a voice just slightly louder than a whisper.

"Hmmm… auto accident?" the woman asked in a pensive voice. "I wonder if it's the same accident we were involved in?" The question seemed more like an idle thought than an actual inquiry that was directed at the girl to whom she was speaking.

"You were in an auto accident too?" Usagi asked in shock.

"Yes, but not to worry, it was only a minor crash for us, thanks to the wonderful driving skills of my lovely partner," the woman replied, her tone changing to one of adoration when she mentioned her companion. "We only had some light injuries, and we wanted to go home tonight, but the doctors wanted to look over Haruka overnight. Something about possible internal injuries, they said."

Despite the hinted plea from the woman for Usagi to not worry over what she considered an insignificant event, the blonde could not help but show a face of utter concern.

"Are you sure you're okay?" she asked with greater emphasis.

"Absolutely," the woman said emphatically, if not a little harshly, in return. Usagi momentarily pouted at the rough reply, but soon the pout transformed itself into a smile.

"I'm glad," she said kindly. She stuck her hand out and gave a slight bow. "I'm Tsukino Usagi, by the way."

"Kaiou Michiru," the woman replied as she hesitantly moved her hand to take Usagi's.

As soon as they touched, she felt something akin to a spark of electricity course through her entire body. At the same time, a flood of images poured into her mind. They were fuzzy images of memories that were long ago forgotten, but everything she saw were both completely unfamiliar and yet strangely innate to her. Along with the visions came a sudden sensation of warmth that filled her body. It brought a pleasing sensation to the young woman that fortunately alleviated the physical pain of the abrupt recollection, though it still hurt mightily. She quickly pulled her hand away from Usagi's sooner than the younger girl expected and put it to her head.

"What's wrong?" Usagi asked anxiously.

"No-nothing. It's just a small headache," Michiru replied in a suddenly shy voice of her own. "Maybe due to the fact I haven't had anything to eat in a while, just like you," she quickly added. She dropped her hand from her head and used it to point to the line. "Shall we order something to eat?"

Usagi slowly nodded in reply and walked toward the entrance to the ordering line with Michiru following closely behind. Usagi decided to order the item that was suggested to her by new acquaintance, whereas Michiru chose a more traditional meal. The pair then proceeded to the end of the line to pay for their meals.

"I'll pay for you. Don't worry about it," Michiru unexpectedly offered.

"What? No! I can pay for myself. You don't have to pay for me," a somewhat stunned Usagi replied hurriedly.

"I know I don't have to. It's more like—" Michiru's chest heaved upwards and then sank back down as she released a sigh— "I don't know why, but I feel like I just _want_ to do so." She gave Usagi a weak smile.

In Michiru's mind she truly did not know why she did that. She didn't even know why she approached the girl in the first place, as meeting people definitely was not her strong suite. If Usagi were any other person the entire encounter never would have occurred, but some unconscious force drew her to the troubled young girl. The strange phenomenon she experienced when touching the blonde served to further pique her curiosity and drive her suspicions. Part of her questioned whether she should have accosted the girl in the first place, as she was beginning to feel very strange in her presence. She couldn't describe the feeling, and it wasn't a particularly bad sensation, but she was unsure if it was typical and if she wanted to continue experiencing it.

Usagi, in turn, acquiesced to Michiru's request to pay for her food, knowing she wouldn't have been able to stop her from doing so. Besides, how could she? She was completely mesmerized by that wonderfully elegant young woman. It was beyond her comprehension how an individual human being could be so graceful and beautiful. For the entire brief time she was waiting for her meal she thought about how she wished she could be just as gorgeous and refined as the person standing immediately next to her. The turquoise-haired woman exuded exquisite beauty. Despite all the glowing compliments Mariko gave her, which the late photographer sincerely believed and Usagi happily accepted, she still believed that she did not quite measure up.

"Well, Tsukino-san, it was nice to meet you. I certainly hope your family recovers well," she said politely but with brusque overtones as she took her food from the cafeteria worker and bowed. She then turned away from Usagi and started to walk to one of the tables.

"Wait!" Usagi yelled, grabbing Michiru's attention and causing the turquoise-haired woman to turn around. "You're eating in here, right?"

"Yes," she said curtly as she glared at Usagi. She then softened her expressions, partially because of the upset response she elicited.

"Well, can I eat with you?" Usagi asked hesitantly, careful to not cause another of what she interpreted to be an angry response from Michiru.

Michiru paused for a several seconds, looking up at the ceiling while she was deep in thought. "I don't think it will hurt to have you join me," she said softly as she briefly turned a pleasant gaze to Usagi.

"Thanks," Usagi said with absolute sincerity. She looked up at Michiru with a wide, beaming smile and utterly brilliant sapphire-blue eyes. Her soul felt true joy at such a minute gesture of friendliness as eating a meal together with someone who was a complete stranger only minutes ago. She couldn't have been alone. A person with a heart as wide open and loving as hers would not have survived the insult. Solitude was a kind of death sentence for her, as she had learned from bitter experience the past two weeks.

They sat down at a table near the far corner of the cafeteria, away from the main entrance, with Usagi seated across the table from Michiru. The normally gregarious girl wanted to ignite a friendly conversation, but she suddenly found herself at a loss for words as she was captivated by the elegance of the person sitting immediately in front of her. Even when she was doing something as basic as eating, it seemed like she did it with an infinite amount of grace and deftness. Usagi, on the other hand, had a complete absence of table manners, and she was suddenly made very self-conscious of that fact.

"So, are you going to eat or just stare at me the whole time?" a thoroughly annoyed Michiru said.

Usagi blushed slightly as she averted her gaze downward toward the container holding her food. "Sorry 'bout that," she said softly. She lifted the fork and stuck it into the middle of the small hunk of meat that vaguely looked like steak. Her immediate intention was not to actually cut out a small piece but to just move the steak around in tiny circles on her plate. Although she appeared to be miserable, and in a way she was, in reality she felt more contemplative than anything.

Again, Michiru found herself in very unfamiliar territory, for at no other time would she have felt truly awful about the previous exchange. It was an innocuous remark and she meant absolutely no harm by it. However, in the presence of this young girl, everything just felt _different_. Merely looking at the hesitant blonde play with her food drove compelled her to immediately apologize.

"It's just that, I feel so in awe when I look at you, at how graceful you are, that I feel way too intimidated to do anything," Usagi suddenly blurted in soft tones, momentarily catching Michiru off-guard and interrupting her intended apology.

"Why should I intimidate you?" Michiru asked innocently as she collected herself.

"I… I just don't think I could ever compare to such a magnificent woman like you," Usagi said with a sullen sigh.

Michiru scrunched her nose slightly in confusion. "And why would you think that I'm any better than you, or that you're any worse than me?" she asked more straightforwardly.

Usagi shook her head. "I'm sorry for being so random and blabbering on about personal stuff. I just have had a lot of things on my mind recently," she replied remorsefully. She looked up at Michiru with perceptibly dimmer and yet hopeful eyes. "I thought that, maybe, you would be someone who wouldn't mind listening."

"On that last point I have to say that you would be wrong," Michiru replied calmly. Before Usagi could feel the inevitable pang of dejection, she quickly added, "_If_ you were somebody else. But, if we're going to start our conversation with random, awkward blabber, I might as well join in." She punctuated her words with a small, warm smile.

"Huh?" Usagi uttered with a face that twisted slightly in confusion. "You're troubled with things too?"

"Isn't everyone at some point in time?" she replied somewhat teasingly. "Anyway, the thing that's troubling me is that I just met you and yet I feel a strange pull toward you. It's similar to the attraction I feel for my dear Haruka."

"So, are you saying that I'm going to be replaced one day?" said the slightly lower-pitched teasing voice that originated from a person standing behind the woman.

"Hmmm… maybe sooner than later as she's oh-so tempting," Michiru responded in an equally playful tone and a mischievous smile. Her eyes remained locked on the thoroughly puzzled visage of the pigtailed blonde who had no idea why her elegant female dining partner suddenly was flirting with her. She immediately knew who had apparently materialized behind her without turning even the most fleeting glance in that direction. However, she didn't need to look with her eyes, as she had an innate sense for the proximity of that particular person.

"So, you're just going to make me have to work extra hard for you?" the sandy-haired person replied with ever increasing jocularity while bending down next to Michiru and very gently placing a hand on her shoulder.

"I wouldn't have it any other way," Michiru replied as she finally turned around to lay shimmering eyes on the one person she loved more than anyone. She reached up and tenderly brushed the side of the pleasantly smirking face that rested so close to her own with the palm of her hand.

If Usagi was perplexed at the beginning of the exchange, she was utterly flabbergasted by the end. She deduced rather quickly that the person who had sauntered up to the table behind Michiru was the Haruka she was talking about. However, there were two thoughts that immediately struck her as intriguing. First, she had just no idea how deeply the two loved each other until she witnessed that small display. In a scant few seconds she observed a love that was practically limitless. It was something she never felt from Mamoru, especially near the end of their relationship but even early on when things between them were good. Second, as much as she thought Mamoru was mind-blowingly handsome at one time, this new stranger was absolutely stunning. There was no comparing the two. The clincher was the face. Bracketed by short, sandy hair and punctuated by astonishing teal eyes, it was an unquestionably alluring countenance that held a strange, almost feminine softness to it that she found even more attractive.

"Oh, where are my manners?" Michiru asked as she slowly retreated from Haruka with a wink. She then turned to Usagi with a friendly smile on her lips. "Tsukino-san, this is Tenou Haruka," she said as she gestured to the sandy blonde sporting navy-blue slacks and a button-down formal dress shirt that matched the pale hue of her gown.

Usagi emphatically extended her hand in greeting as she pulled her lips into a wide smile. "Hi, I'm Usagi," she said cheerfully.

Haruka turned her eyes to Usagi. She saw the gleam in those blue eyes as she approached, and she knew the younger blonde was absolutely smitten by her charms. She also assumed, correctly, that Usagi had no clue whatsoever that she was, in fact, a woman. Yet, her flirtatious nature would not allow her to waste her perfect opportunity. In that light, she willingly took the hand offered to her.

Instantaneously, Haruka felt a sharp pain in her head as a flood of ancient visions, similar to what Michiru had experienced earlier that night, rushed into her mind. She recoiled noticeably at the shock and the sudden warm sensation that filled her body. Yet she did not pull her hand away from Usagi's. Instead she smiled.

"So if this is the girl that's threatening to replace me, then I have quite a bit of work to do," she said with a playful smirk. She leaned in closer to Usagi until her mouth was right next to the younger girl's ear. "Or, I may just take you for myself instead," she whispered, causing Usagi to blush furiously.

"Oh, come on," a suddenly irritated Michiru said softly.

Haruka stood erect once again, took a few steps back, and sat down at the table next to Michiru, sending her an imperceptible wink as she lightly and tenderly grabbed her hand beneath the table.

"So, Tsukino-san, are you here at the hospital for a car crash as well?" Haruka asked nonchalantly.

The red disappeared from Usagi's cheeks as the offhand reminder of the accident startled her. "Y-yes. Well, not for me, but my parents and younger brother were involved in one earlier tonight," she said nervously.

Haruka's face turned remarkably pensive as she comprehended Usagi's words. "Wait, so how old is your brother?" she asked unexpectedly.

"He's eleven now," she said hesitantly, unsure of the reasoning behind the question.

Haruka paused for a few more moments, deep in thought, before continuing. "And do your parents drive a red five-door Mazda Axela?" she asked determinedly. The confused look on Usagi's face reminded her that not everyone knew as much about cars as her. "A small red hatchback?" she quickly asked in a resigned tone.

"Ah. Yes, they do. Why?" Usagi responded with even more puzzlement.

"Because I think your family almost collided head-on with Michiru and me," Haruka said flatly.

"Fortunately, Haruka-chan's a professional race car driver, and an excellent one at that. Because of that, we were able to avoid both your parent's car and the truck they ultimately hit and get us out mostly unscathed," Michiru said admiringly as she glanced up at Haruka.

"Although I am very sorry for what happened to your family," Haruka added solemnly.

Usagi slowly shook her head. "It's okay. They were hurt, but I think they're going to be fine," she replied forlornly despite the optimistic words she voiced. The blatant discrepancy was noted by both Haruka and Michiru, although neither pointed it out.

At that time Usagi felt the phone vibrating in her left hand. She had been tightly clutching the thing since she received it from Saeko earlier that night and had been loath to set it down for even a few seconds for fear of losing it. She flipped the phone open and immediately saw on the screen that Saeko was calling from her office. A small sigh of disappointment escaped her lips as she knew soon she would have to leave the elegant Michiru and the gloriously handsome Haruka. "I'm sorry," she whispered sadly as she excused herself from the table to speak with Saeko. A minute later she returned to the curious glances of the pair.

"I have to go now. However, it was nice meeting both of you," she said softly as she closed and picked up the container holding her uneaten food in her free hand. She attempted to sound lively but failed miserably as she wished she could talk much longer with the pair. Her dejected gaze fell first upon Michiru, loitering there for several seconds before it shifted to Haruka. Even though she knew they were a couple, she wanted to befriend both of them. Yet, she didn't have the opportunity to even really learn much about them, and she doubted whether she would ever see them again.

"Oh, it was very nice meeting you, Koneko-chan," Haruka said while gazing softly at Usagi in a manner that caused the younger blonde's cheeks to turn bright red once again. It also elicited a sharp glare from Michiru, though she broke away from it to give her valediction.

"It was a pleasure meeting you, Tsukino-san," Michiru said gently with a polite nod and a friendly wave. "I'm certain we will see each other again," she added in a more resolute but overall very placid voice.

Usagi nodded to each of them before slowly turning and walking out of the cafeteria. The final words that Michiru told her rang loudly within her mind. _"But how can we see each other again, when soon I'll be in a completely different city, effectively in hiding,"_ she mused sadly.

Meanwhile, after she saw Usagi pass through the cafeteria doors, she turned to her partner and lover in Haruka. A bemused expression fell across her face as she looked at the person she loved more dearly than anyone on the planet and asked her, using a tone of utter disbelief, two simple questions.

"Koneko-chan? _Really_?"


	26. Tiny Beginnings of a New Normal

**Chapter 26: Tiny Beginnings of a New Normal**

Usagi slowly opened her eyes to take in the near-darkness of the unfamiliar room that she was forced to call her bedroom for the next few days. She was residing in the guest bedroom at Saeko's house as it was unsafe for her to return to her own home. At that wee hour of the morning, and with all of the grueling physical and mental strain she had endured throughout the course of the past several hours, she should have been fast asleep. But sleep was something she was having difficulty finding that night, and the strangeness of the room was not making things easier. The mattress was slightly harder than what she was used to laying upon at home, the sheets were a little smoother than the texture she remembered hers having, and the pillow was less fluffy than her own. None of those issues were significant by themselves, and it wasn't like she always had slept in her own bed in her own room. There were many nights spent at Hikawa shrine, for example. The difference in that case, and in all other cases, was that ultimately she always returned home to _her_ bedroom. As she sighed mournfully, she pondered if that could ever be the case again.

She pushed herself up from the bed, twisted her body around to allow her legs to dangle from the bed, and dropped her bare feet to the carpeted floor. That was another difference between her bedroom and this foreign space. It was very plush beige carpet that was comfortable to her feet and shielded it from an otherwise cold floor. However, it was still unfamiliar and unlike anything to which she had become accustomed at home.

"_I guess I'll just have to get used to living differently,"_ she mused as she stepped from the bedroom into the hallway. _"Maybe a new life deserves new surroundings."_

She trudged silently down the hall toward Saeko's bedroom. On the way she passed by the bedroom that belonged to Ami. Her feet stopped and she felt compelled to peek into the dark, vacant room. She had been in there before, with the blue-haired genius, shortly after learning that she was Sailor Mercury. It was an austere room compared to her own, simple and purposeful, but it seemed to suit Ami just fine. A lone tear escaped the corner of her eye and streaked down her cheek. It was followed by another tear droplet, and yet another. The mere thought that her cherished friend would never occupy that room again brought forth a storm of tears. No longer was she feeling guilty for Ami's death at Zoisite's hand. That was replaced by pure and overwhelming grief at the loss of the only member of the senshi she truly could have called a friend.

After collecting herself and calming her depressed emotions, she continued down the hall to the top of the staircase. Next to her was Saeko's bedroom. She could hear the muffled sounds of sobbing, punctuated by the occasional wail, from the other side of the door. It was the unmistakably sad sound of a mother expressing her personal grief for the death of a daughter. As despondent as she felt about losing Ami, it was minuscule compared to the utter heartache she sensed Saeko was suffering. It was a sensation she could not begin to fathom. She didn't know for how long Saeko was crying, but she guessed it had to be hours. Or, in other words, ever since they had arrived at the doctor's house. The sound of unmitigated despair was beginning to eat at her and she knew she had to get away, if only for her own sanity. She proceeded to slowly walk down the stairs and into the living room before the raw emotion caused her to shed even more tears.

She made her way to the darkened living room and plopped onto the sofa. If there were a television there she would have turned it on and mindlessly consumed the late-night programming genius of some random station. However, Ami's mother did not own a television, and it made perfect sense why. Saeko rarely was at home, and when she was her time was occupied mainly with sleeping, followed closely by reading. Ami, when she was home, was far more interested in reading for the sake of studying or for entertainment. In the rare times that both were at home at the same time, they would do something together or just talk. At no time was a television deemed necessary. Because of that, Usagi had to find something else to do to cure her sleeplessness.

From nowhere she heard and felt a sharp grumbling within her stomach as her body painfully reminded her once again that she needed to eat something. She slowly pushed herself up from the softness and relative warmth of the sofa and trudged into the kitchen, turning on the light and momentarily blinding herself in the process. The pain from her eyes soon vanished and she opened the refrigerator, where she found her dinner from last night sitting on the bottom shelf. Sighing loudly, she grabbed the plastic container and set it on the marble countertop. She then rummaged through the cabinets as quietly as she could to look for a plate as she didn't want to attempt microwaving the plastic. She had seen the end result of such a calamity one too many times. Finding success with the third set of cabinets, she softly set the ceramic plate down and unceremoniously dumped onto it the contents of the container. She narrowed her eyes and scrunched her nose at the blob that rested on the plate, thinking ruefully that she could have sworn it actually looked like food when she ordered it a few hours ago. But, as her stomach complained yet again, she ignored the inelegant aesthetics of her meal and concentrated on sufficiently warming it so she could actually eat.

A few minutes later she retrieved the warm plate from the microwave and sat down at the table in the dining room. It wasn't an opulent table by any stretch of the imagination, but it was definitely much nicer than the table she was used to sitting at in her old home. She felt a little guilty about using one of Saeko's plates and her flatware without asking beforehand, but she inherently knew that the doctor wouldn't mind. She took a small bite of the steak that she had only played with previously. Even after a few hours being chilled and then reheated it wasn't horrible, and she might have even considered it passable. Even if her taste buds minded, her stomach certainly did not, and by then it was the one calling the shots. A few minutes into slowly finishing off the steak and the associated vegetables, her mind drifted away from the present and consumed itself with remembrances of her meeting with the graceful Michiru and the stunningly handsome Haruka.

"_Oh God, Haruka was just so magnificent and handsome. Perfect sandy hair and eyes I could just drown in. And lips, luscious lips I wouldn't mind being kissed with, and kissing myself, over and over and over. I wish that he would just take me as his own,"_ she thought sadly even as she stared dreamily at the wall in front of her. _"But he already has Michiru, and I just cannot compare to someone as beautiful and elegant as her. No wonder someone like Haruka is with her. If I were even half as graceful as Michiru, maybe Mamoru wouldn't have broken up with me."_

She sighed. She knew that mindset wasn't helping her one bit. Mamoru was not supposed to invade her thoughts anymore. He was out of her life as far as love interests went. Even with the death of Ami, she couldn't bring herself to reconsider Mamoru. Actually, especially because of Ami's death, she knew she shouldn't think about the man in such a way again. It would almost be like dancing on her best friend's grave. She couldn't imagine anything more reprehensible.

"No, that doesn't matter anymore. I'm perfectly fine without him," she whispered as she tried to shake the errant thoughts of Mamoru from her head. She lifted the fork and took another bite of the gradually disappearing steak. "I can't start thinking about him… not like that."

She signed yet again and forced herself to think about other things—namely Haruka and Michiru. She vacillated between two opposing thoughts. On one hand, she felt absolute giddiness thinking about the merely being in close proximity to, and being subjected to the rich flirting of, the gorgeous Haruka. Whether or not she had any realistic chance to somehow capture the heart of the striking blonde was inconsequential in her mind. On the other, she dreamily thought of learning the elegant mannerisms of Michiru, mainly to further distance herself from the ditzy, klutzy, unintelligent crybaby of a girl she once was. However, when she overcame her nagging self-doubt and feelings of intimidation, she also found that being in the presence of the turquoise-haired woman filled her with a pleasant and calm sensation. It was something she definitely did not mind feeling once more.

That was assuming she had an opportunity to see them again. In a few days time she would be moving to Kyoto, leaving the ward of Minato for the first time in her life. For the time being she would be staying with Saeko and keeping a low profile to avoid running into trouble with the Dark Kingdom. It was unlikely she would be going out much, which meant no trips to the arcade and no more walking to school. She didn't talk about it yet with either her mother or Saeko, but she assumed that school officials would be notified of her impending absence and eventual transfer. In any case, she strongly doubted her path would cross with those of Haruka and Michiru for a long time to come, if ever. That special pair did not have to worry about being hunted and having to flee for their own or their families' safety.

Then she remembered Michiru's last words to her. They were spoken with such amazing conviction despite it only being their first meeting and likely their last. It drove her to thinking and to disbelieving her own pessimistic thoughts. What did that attractive woman know that she didn't? It was one thing to hope for a reunion, but it was something entirely different to predict it. She smiled. Although it was a long shot, if Michiru was going to be optimistic in thinking that they would meet again, then so would she.

—|1|**2**|3|4|—

"Ugh… stop moving the room on me."

Those were the first words Kunzite muttered in several hours as he slowly opened his eyes. He felt extremely dizzy and slightly nauseous, but that was to be expected from the rapid infusion of energy he had received in order to resuscitate him after the severe beating he received at the hands of Sailor Moon. Despite the influx of energy, he still felt weaker than normal. The pale light that emanated from one of the few torches scattered along the walls of the room was more than enough to sting his eyes. He rapidly closed them once again to alleviate the painful sensation and to hopefully calm his stomach.

"Umm, it's not the room that's spinning. Just your head," Sazaratha said disdainfully as she stood with her arms crossed at the side of his bed and stared at the disheveled man with a contemptuous look on her face.

"Wait, what are _you_ doing here?" he asked with palpable annoyance. She was the last person he wanted to talk to in his moment of weakness.

"_Someone_ had to nurse this pathetic excuse for a supreme leader back to health," she retorted with equivalent irritation. "You were practically unconscious after you returned. I mean, you weren't really unconscious, but at the same time you weren't really in much shape to be useful. It would have taken forever for you to regain the energy on your own."

"So… you took it upon yourself to help me?" he asked in confusion.

"Heh. You might wish that I did it because I love you so much," she scoffed, "but I just need you alive so you could fulfill your end of the bargain."

He sighed resignedly. He figured her self-serving reason for helping him was better than nothing, but only slightly. If anything good came from her assistance it was the fact it only took him hours to almost fully regain his health instead of days. That didn't include the fact that she was effectively saving his life during the entire battle, up to the point he sent her away on that special mission.

"I'll keep my word and talk with Beryl later today," he said curtly. He was annoyed to even fathom having a creature like Sazaratha considered an equal among the ranks of the Shitennou. However, he was a man of his word and he intended to keep his promise, no matter how painful it would be or how much he felt he would regret it later.

"You'd better," she replied even more succinctly. She took a few steps around to the footboard of the bed. "Anyway, I'm sure you want to know how the mission went," she said calmly but with unmistakable confidence.

"Absolutely," he replied. He slowly pushed himself up so he could see the blond-haired woman. "Did you do what I asked of you?"

She turned and shot him an angry look that she held for a few seconds before averting her gaze, her disappointment obvious. "Well, I failed to completely eliminate them—"

"You failed to kill three civilians who had no knowledge of what they were up against. Yet you demand respect," he interjected derisively.

"I'd like to see _you_ try to attack three people in the open without creating a spectacle _and_ without the targets even knowing an attack was taking place," she retorted irately as she glared at him once again. She took a few deep breaths to calm herself down. As much as she loathed the silver-haired man, she tried to interact with him civilly, if only for her own benefit. He had yet to give Beryl his recommendation, and even though both of them knew how painful she could make his life without it, a poor recommendation would have led to a worse promotion than she desired, assuming she received one at all.

"In any case, I think it actually gives us an advantage," she said evenly and with a curious gleam in her pale indigo eyes.

"How so?" he asked incredulously.

She pulled her lips into a small, mischievous grin. "Right now she's frightened. She's concerned for the health of her family and likely would want to stay with them until they recover."

Her words drew from him nothing more than a blank stare. "I still don't see how this helps us in our mission to bring the princess to Beryl."

"Come on, are you really that daft?" she shouted, startling the eldest Shitennou member. She cursed to herself, took another deep breath, and coughed lightly to clear her throat before continuing. "Her parents are laid up in a hospital somewhere in the city. She's likely to be there with them for the majority of her time before heading home. It's unlikely she'll have the time or desire to go to many other places. Maybe the arcade-slash-cafe, but that's it. In other words, it vastly reduces the number of places she would be, and it's very likely she would be alone in said locations."

"But I still don't see how this gives us an advantage over killing them the way I intended you to do."

She had to bite her tongue and resist the temptation to immediately spew forth a snide comment. Even then, she couldn't completely contain her anger.

"The way you intended would have immediately destroyed her psyche, but the way I think this could work would be just as effective," she said with a huff. She took a few short paces away from his bed. "Remember, she may no longer have her senshi around her, but she's still Sailor Moon and Princess Serenity, and sooner or later—if she hasn't done so already—she will find out that what her family suffered through wasn't an accident. That instills fear within our lovely little princess. Fear that we will attack them yet again. That fear will consume her and gradually weaken her to the point where it will be a piece of cake to capture her."

"Do you really think it'll happen the way you describe it?" he asked skeptically. He clearly was much stronger than he was even a few minutes ago and he was able to rise from his bed and stand tall on the stone floor. He continued to speak with an explanatory, if not slightly patronizing tone. "Killing her family would have removed everything the princess ever considered dear. Think about it. The senshi hate her and no longer believe in her. They're not going to do anything to help her. Luna's gone, and though Artemis is still there, I doubt that silly little cat can do anything to help. So that removes one pillar of support for her."

He walked around to the front of the bed so that he was standing only a few feet away from the displeasured Sazaratha. Fury was welling up inside of her as she found the tone and attitude of the man who, for the moment, continued to be her superior insulting. Amazingly, she remained silent throughout his speech despite the strong compulsion she had to say something incredibly nasty.

"Now, the other pillar of support for the princess is her family," he said, continuing with the same calm, erudite tone. "If we were to kill them, then that would eliminate any form of support and completely crush her spirit, thus leaving her vulnerable. However, keeping them alive, as you have done, gives her hope. She may be afraid but she is also hopeful, and if she is hopeful then she is strong. Stronger than we can imagine. In other words, you just made this a whole lot more difficult for us by not completing your mission."

She sighed resignedly as she knew he had the logical advantage. "Okay, okay… you got me. I was trying to put a positive spin on this, but… whatever," she said somewhat dejectedly. She looked down at the dark grey stone floor and the few dark, wavy shadows created by the dim flames dancing atop the torches. "So, what do we do now?"

"What do we do now?" he echoed with a disdainful tone. "It's more like, 'What do _you_ do now?' And what you will do is find the princess, which should be easy as there aren't that many places she could be, as you said yourself. Once you find her, immediately notify me for further instruction, but be careful not to lose her."

"You're asking me to do something that any one of the youma here can do?" she asked angrily as she glared directly into the blue-grey eyes of the oldest Shitennou leader. "Do you suddenly have that little faith in me?"

Kunzite stood his ground and delivered an equally harsh stare. "If you had done your job properly the first time, you wouldn't have to do something you consider menial right now," he retorted. He lifted his arm and pointed at nothing in particular, but the gesture was immediately understood by the dour blonde. "Now, I suggest hurrying while we still have plenty of time and some semblance of an advantage."

Without saying another word, or at least anything he could readily hear, she turned and walked away from the grey-suited man, the clicks of her heels echoing loudly about the cavern-shaped room. She looked like she was about to walk directly into one of the solid rock walls but teleported right before impact with a small flash of white light.

He waited for her to leave before he sat at the edge of his bed and looked down at the floor. An almost imperceptible smile crept onto his lips.

"_As hard of a time I gave her, she probably did the best she could have done given the situation,"_ he thought. _"If she does manage to find the princess today, and we are able to bring her in, then maybe I'll give Beryl good recommendation of her after all."_

—|1|2|**3**|4|—

A warm, gentle light radiating from the early-morning sun flooded the serene expanse of the living room and enveloped the slumbering blond girl who was sprawled across the cream-colored sofa. Usagi had fallen into a peaceful sleep with thoughts prancing through her mind of meeting the gorgeous Haruka and the lovely Michiru once again. It was almost eight o'clock in the morning, and she only had a few hours sleep, but those few hours were vital and she took full advantage of them. Saeko had to poke and gently shake the girl a few times to rouse her from the near coma-like state she had attained. After a few minutes of agitation, Usagi finally opened her eyes and stared into a calm pair of auburn eyes and a tender smile.

"I'm glad to see that you're finally awake," Saeko said softly. She held a mug of freshly made coffee in her hands.

"Can't I sleep for just a few more minutes?" Usagi asked drowsily as she turned her body over onto her side.

A small smile came to Saeko's lips. "Now I see what Ikuko-san had to go through for all that time," she said with a light chuckle at the end, which drew a tiny pout from the lethargic blonde. "But, I also can sense you had a rough time sleeping last night." She took another sip from the mug.

"As did you," Usagi retorted quietly as she yawned and slowly pushed herself into a more upright sitting position.

Saeko expelled a light, tired sigh. "Yes, as did both of us."

As Usagi's eyes adjusted to the light, she could see that the doctor and late-best-friend's mother appeared haggard. The woman had taken care to cleanse her face of the tears she had shed, but she didn't do much more to make herself look presentable. Formality could wait for a few more hours. It was just as well, considering that she and Usagi's family were already close and were going to become even closer in the upcoming weeks and months, if not longer.

"I made tea and breakfast if you feel like eating something, Usagi-san," Saeko said. "I hope you like pancakes as I didn't feel like making anything too fancy."

"Thank you," Usagi replied. She gave a smile that, although relatively minute, was incredibly warm and heartfelt. "And yes, I absolutely love pancakes."

The pair walked into the dining room where two stacks of warm pancakes already were sitting on the table along with a small container of maple syrup and a steaming kettle of green tea. Usagi was ushered to sit at the head of the rectangular table while Saeko took the seat next to her. The doctor lifted the kettle from the table and carefully filled the teacup next to Usagi's plate until it was three-quarters full. Meanwhile, Usagi gradually poured the syrup over the golden-brown and unusually thick pancakes, not drowning them the way she used to.

"I talked with a few friends of mine from university," Saeko started as she set the kettle back onto the table and began cutting into her trio of pancakes. "One of them is in the moving business. He owns a company that does the majority of the work—"

"Oh my goodness, these are _amazing_!" Usagi interjected cheerfully with wide, sparkling sapphire-blue eyes turned toward Saeko. "And _chocolate chips_? How did you know I liked chocolate-chip pancakes?"

Saeko smiled at Usagi. "How could I _not_ know that about you?" she replied with a wink.

Usagi giggled as she took yet another bite of the delectable pancakes. They were pleasantly surprising as the smooth surface of the pancakes gave no clue to the presence of delicious chocolate chips within. "I'm sorry. You were saying," she said a few seconds later after her she had calmed down.

"It's quite okay. I'm glad they helped to put you into a good mood," Saeko said with a smile. She took another sip of coffee. "Anyway, my friend Hayato owns a moving company that does the bulk of its business in Shibuya, but he said he could spare a couple of trucks for this job. I also found a few other moving companies to help with the move."

Usagi's nose scrunched upward as she gave Saeko a perplexed look. "Why so many moving trucks?" she asked. "Our house isn't that big and we don't have that much stuff."

Saeko smiled at Usagi yet again, although this one was more mischievous. "You said you're afraid of Kunzite following us and finding out where we lived, right?" she asked, with Usagi slowly nodding in reply. "Well, I figured we could use some misdirection to help confuse them."

"What do you mean?" Usagi mumbled innocently between bites of pancake.

"Well, think of it like this," Saeko said as she began to explain the plan she concocted, albeit with a familiar tone as opposed to the scholarly voice with which she was accustomed to speaking. "If we only used one moving truck, Kunzite would be able to easily track it on its way to Kyoto. However, what if we used two trucks, and one truck went to Kyoto and another went to, say, Sendai? Then Kunzite would not be able to follow both vehicles, would he?"

"Nope," Usagi said as a light grin crept onto her lips.

"However, I can imagine that the Dark Kingdom consists of more than just Kunzite. You said there were Queen Beryl and the Shitennou, of which there were four generals," Saeko said.

"But two of them are dead, as far as we know, leaving just Kunzite and Zoisite," Usagi said casually while taking a sip of tea.

"Okay, just two generals of the Shitennou," Saeko said. "It would require both of them to determine where the trucks are going and to figure out which one is a decoy and which one is not. As such, one of them will be lead astray and would not be able to do anything. However, the other general would still be able to follow the truck leading to your new home."

"I would imagine that would be bad," Usagi suggested.

"Very bad," Saeko concurred. "However, if we continued to increase the number of moving trucks and the number of locations to which those trucks were sent we could overwhelm the Dark Kingdom. They would never be able to track all of them, and it vastly decreases the probability that they would find the correct truck going to the correct house."

Usagi's eyes lit up as she identified what she perceived to be an oversight within the plan. "But they could still get lucky and find the right truck, which means they'll still be able to find us," she said excitedly.

Saeko grinned. "You're absolutely right, Usagi-san, which is why I thought of two more complications for them," she said enthusiastically. "The first is to have two moving stages, where we move your belongings from your current house to an intermediate point, and then from there to your new house. The second is to make sure that any truck they see has furniture and other items within it, so that they will not be able to find out which truck to follow by intercepting the vehicles."

"Okay, I'm already starting to get confused," Usagi said playfully with the hint of a wink that alerted Saeko to the fact that she actually still understood everything she was saying to that point.

"I'm certain they would, too," Saeko said. Her voice gradually revealed even more of the eagerness she felt for the plan she created. "So, back to the first part. I'm envisioning the moving trucks going to three separate cities. The items would be placed in storage there for a short amount of time, maybe a few days at most. Let's call this stage 'A', alright?"

"Yep," Usagi said while nodding in acceptance.

Saeko continued with even more fervor. "Now, stage 'B' would be going to each of the three cities with six moving trucks apiece. Each of the six trucks will go to one of six different cities. That's eighteen moving trucks total that they would have to track, which may or may not be overwhelming to them already, but that's not the end of the plan."

"There's more?" Usagi asked with genuine surprise.

"Yes, the last bit of the confusion and deception," Saeko said. "Now, for the last part the moving trucks will be shuffling between the six cities, or even to different parts within those cities. That would significantly increase the burden on them to track where you are going. However, there's one last interesting and, if I do say so, rather sneaky part to this whole plan."

"What's that?" Usagi asked expectantly, her eyes widening and gleaming as she leaned toward the older woman and stared at her intently.

"By including the last six cities I'm sending them on a wild-goose chase," Saeko said with a wry smile on her face and an equally bright shine in her eyes. "One of the first three cities would be our destination Kyoto, but none of the last six. Therefore, we would be leading them away from you, as they would be spending much of their time trying to find out which of those six cities you lived in, instead of searching the three where you actually do live."

The smile on Saeko's face grew even larger, and Usagi also grew a wide smile as that detail of the plan absolutely delighted her. However, the more compassionate side of Usagi's personality kicked in as she recognized the amount of sacrifice that Saeko needed to endure in order to successfully put the plan into action.

"But, wouldn't that be awfully expensive, with all the moving trucks you'll have to rent, never mind storage? And where would you get the other furniture?" Usagi asked with concern.

"Don't worry," Saeko said reassuringly as she gently rested a hand on Usagi's shoulder. "Another one of my old friends from university owns a furniture store. She agreed to let me 'borrow' some items, with fair compensation. After a while I'll slowly return the furniture and she'll refund the money—minus a small fee, of course. I'll take a loss but not nearly as big of one compared to directly purchasing the furniture. As for storage, it's only going to be a few days in any one location, so the costs should be very low."

Usagi slowly nodded as her fears of placing too much of a burden on Saeko were assuaged. The smile she had previously reappeared on her face as she took the last bite of her pancakes and pushed the empty plate away from her.

"Now, what are we going to be doing today?" Saeko asked nonchalantly as she finished off her coffee. She tilted her head slightly to the side as she glanced at Usagi. The blonde was wearing a light-blue set of pajamas that belonged to Ami, and although it fit surprisingly well given that Usagi was shorter than Ami, it did highlight a pressing issue. "I think the first thing is that we need to get you some clothes," she said. "I wish it were as simple as going up to your place and grabbing some of yours, but clearly it's a bit more difficult than that."

"Maybe we can get someone else to run up to my house and grab something…" Usagi started to say enthusiastically, but her voice faltered as she realized the danger in doing that. She looked up at the ceiling, her mind deep in thought looking for a way to resolve that issue with her intended plan, but came to the conclusion that there was no way. At least, there was no easy way. "No, it won't work," she conceded softly with a disappointed pout.

"I guess that leaves only one option. It's a good thing then that I'm officially on vacation," Saeko said.

"Wait, you're taking the day off?" Usagi asked in a combination of worry and confusion.

"Yes. As I said before, I have about two months of vacation time. With everything that has happened in my life in the past day or so, I think now is a good time to take it," Saeko replied calmly. She stood from her chair and looked over at Usagi. "Now, I think we had better hurry up and get some shopping done, unless you want to go out wearing your school uniform today," Saeko said with a lively smirk.

—|1|2|3|**4**|—

Sazaratha slowly walked down one of the main north-south streets in Juuban district with glazed eyes. She was deep in thought about what her next plan of attack would be. Her mission was to locate the princess and keep track of her while notifying Kunzite of her position, presumably so they could subsequently capture her. However, she had no firm lock on her location. She knew where her target lived, having visited the place only hours ago the previous evening. She also knew that the princess's family was in the hospital, but she wasn't sure about which one. There were two hospitals in the immediate vicinity and she didn't remain nearby after creating what everyone else saw to be a horrible automobile accident in order to see where her three victims were taken. She was aware that the civilian mother of one of the senshi worked at Azabu-Juuban Second General Hospital, but that particular senshi was neutralized and the woman was disregarded as a threat. Nevertheless, it was a piece of information she kept in the back of her mind. Civilian relatives of senshi always were important bargaining pieces.

Her feet came to a stop and she sat on one of the benches at the bus stop. She didn't know why. It wasn't that she particularly needed to use human transport, _especially_ mass transit. No force in the universe could compel her to sit in that close proximity to those sickening creatures for even a few seconds. Not after that horrible experience she had the misfortune of suffering a few months ago while surreptitiously trailing Jadeite as the former Shitennou general was investigating some new ideas to obtain human energy for Queen Beryl. Merely sitting there on that hard bench and witnessing a bus pull up, open its doors expecting the exotic, fair-haired woman to board, and speed away without gaining a passenger was enough to remind her of the painful incident.

"_Of course that blazing idiot had the cockamamie idea of taking the underground train,"_ she thought with mounting fury. Her hands unconsciously balled into fists. _"Yes, there were a bunch of people there, but even _I_ could have told him without boarding that there was little to no energy to be had from those dull beings. Yet he insisted on checking out the idea."_ Her body involuntarily started to tremble ever so slightly. _"And then I had the bright idea of choosing that particular disguise when I went to follow him. I didn't know humans could be such… disgusting… perverts. The second that thing tried to touch me… _there_… I swear…"_

By then, she was staring blankly at the pavement near her feet and tightly clutching the bottom of her skirt within her unsteady fists. That painful memory had left her in a surprisingly fragile state. Even more startling was that she was not human, and any human visage was a disguise she wore for her mission. Yet, it still left her feeling enraged and sullied and depressed all at the same time, something she didn't fully comprehend. If she could have finished her thought, she would have revealed that the unwanted physical contact drove her to uncharacteristically lose her composure and compromise her mission. That, and nearly destroy an entire train-full of people, the pervert and all, in a blind fit of rage. Instead, she just ended up elbowing the person in the face and kneeing him in the groin with so much force he was rendered sterile. That was followed by her igniting a series of bright flashes of light and smoke intended to blind and distract the stunned bystanders from the fact she vaporized into thin air right in front of them.

She shook herself and stood from the bench with renewed vigor. She pointed a defiant stare at the busy crowd of people that streamed from one shop to the next. She didn't need to be sidetracked by such horrific memories. Instead she needed to get to somewhere, _anywhere_, other than the main commercial district. She had a very important mission to complete and nothing was going to get in the way of that. With that determined mindset she turned and marched steadfastly in the direction of her first target.

Before she could take her first step, she crashed directly into an older brunette and a much smaller teenage girl with long, straight blond hair. The woman stumbled backward a few paces but managed to catch her footing before she fell. On the other hand, the girl was knocked to the ground and was sprawled on her back. The shopping bags the girl carried were scattered across the pavement, the contents of some nearly spilling onto the concrete. The startled girl looked up at her with wide, questioning sapphire-blue eyes, while she glared back at the silly little human with narrowed indigo eyes.

"Sorry," Sazaratha said brusquely as she turned her eyes away and walked right past them without giving them another glance.

Under normal situations, if only to maintain her ruse as a beautiful, polite, and gentle young woman, she would have helped the girl to her feet and offered to pick up her bags. Perhaps the girl knew the civilian identity of the princess and could unwittingly provide some information as to her whereabouts during idle conversation. Humans were easy like that, ignorant of the vital information they continuously let slip away. However, politeness could be damned. She had to be intently focused on her mission. As such, she was so focused that she failed to get a good look at the two people she had rammed into so rudely. Only when she was a block away from the bus stop did the terrible realization hit her that she might have made a crucial mistake in being too hasty.


	27. Loss

**Chapter 27: Loss**

"What the _hell_ do we have to do to get this thing open?" Rei shouted. Her eyes and face were beet red with fury as she attempted once again to pry open the brooch with her fingernails but found little success. Instead, she almost flung the round disc across the room as she almost lost her grip with one hand.

She had spent much of the morning along with Makoto trying various methods of gaining access to the Silver Crystal they presumed was stored within Usagi's transformation brooch. The first plan was the most obvious and yet the riskiest, which was to try to transform with the brooch. Of course, it failed miserably as only the girl who was destined to be Sailor Moon could use the magical trinket to perform the transformation. Their next plan was to open the brooch by physical means. She had used all manner of tools she happened to have on hand in the temple, from screwdrivers to hammers to a hatchet, to break the thing open. Whatever material composed the brooch had to be extremely durable as there wasn't even a scratch on the gold surface of the item. She couldn't say quite the same thing about the tools she used. Her grandfather, if he had better eyesight, would have been furious at the expensive damage she and the much stronger brunette managed to do to them.

"Rei, calm down!" a thoroughly annoyed Makoto yelled. "We're not getting anywhere like this. We need to think of a different strategy."

"And what strategy would _that_ be, huh?" Rei snapped as she shot a ferocious glare at the tall brunette.

Minako was not paying any attention to the loud antics happening behind her. Instead, she was having a pointed discussion with her advisor Artemis, who held a less-than-favorable view of her decision to expel Usagi from the group of senshi. He had left them at the beginning of the youma battle to begin a desperate search for Luna and Usagi. Not finding either of them at Usagi's house or at their favorite hangout in Crown, he frantically scoured as much of the city as he could, but to no avail. In any case, by the time he had returned to the park Ami was dead and Usagi had already left an ex-senshi.

"What on Earth were you _thinking_?" Artemis yelled at Minako with unquestionable fury.

"I was doing my duty as a leader of the Sailor Senshi and eliminating what I thought was a threat to our princess," she deadpanned. She turned narrowed eyes at the white cat and gave him a deadly sharp glare. "I don't know if you noticed, but Usagi has been actively working against us."

"Oh, you _really_ believe that?" he countered disbelievingly as he stared back at his charge with furious eyes. "So, you're just going to ignore everything that Usagi has ever done for you, bringing you together with the other girls and being a true friend to you, all because of what is most likely a huge misunderstanding?"

"That's just a deception she used in order to earn our trust so she could then get the Silver Crystal for herself and slowly destroy us," she replied flatly. "Which, I might add, she did successfully."

"A _deception_? My _goodness_, Minako! That was not a deception!" he replied lividly. "Usagi is by far one of the gentlest and friendliest people I know, and yet you're sitting here trying to convince me that she's deliberately trying to hurt the people she calls her best friends?"

"Look at everything she's done to us, Artemis. She attacked and tried to kill Rei during one of our battles—"

"Which I'm sure was purely an accident. I mean, how many times has this girl tripped over her own feet?" he interjected, raising a paw toward the obstinate blonde.

"True, she's an absolute klutz, but she's never tripped during a battle. That is, until the one perfect time where it resulted in serious injury to one of us," she retorted angrily as her stare became even more forceful. "I swear it seems you're more interested in helping _her_ than in helping the senshi or finding the princess?"

"No, I'm trying to stop the senshi from falling apart and self-destructing _precisely_ so that we can work _together_ to find the princess," he replied, intensifying his own glower at Minako. The muscles within his body reflexively tensed as the conflict between senshi and advisor escalated.

"Any self-destruction is largely due to Usagi. I mean, there are only three of us now, no thanks to her," she replied coldly. She pushed herself onto her feet, pivoted on her heels, and slowly took a few paces from the corner of the room she occupied. She kept her back to the white cat as she spoke. "But now we don't have to worry about her interference anymore."

"You're making a huge mistake with this," he pleaded, his angry tones somewhat lessened.

"No, I'm not. I'm doing what's in the best interests of the senshi. But, if you think otherwise, you can feel free to leave, since you appear to be more interested in helping her than us," she said with frosty determination.

Artemis sat in stunned silence for several seconds, his mouth agape, while he tried to comprehend just what happened to Minako for her to act so distantly—and, quite frankly, hatefully—toward him. Clearly, she was not the girl he had known and advised and had come to consider a dear friend over the course of almost two years. Somewhere along the line she had lost her ebullience and love of life and instead had become incredibly serious, aloof, and unpleasant. It might have been the confusion and stress brought about by their recently recovered memories that altered her personality so drastically, but the death of their fellow senshi seemed to push the blonde over the edge.

"I hope you don't feel this way just because of what happened to Ami, because I'm sure Usagi had nothing to do with her death," Artemis said.

"She certainly didn't do much to save her, even though she promised… she _PROMISED _she would come as quickly as she could!" Minako shouted. Her shoulders slouched forward and her entire body trembled in a mixture of anger and depression. "You know what, Artemis, just get out," she abruptly uttered in a shaky whisper.

"Minako…"

The blonde suddenly turned and glared at Artemis with eyes that the cat could have sworn were fiery red instead of their normal royal blue. "_I SAID GET OUT!_" she repeated, this time with an infuriated scream. The room was filled with a stunned silence as Rei and Makoto looked up at their leader with wide eyes and perplexed expressions on their faces. The white cat was aghast at the demand, but he also knew that it was impossible to argue with her at that point and, swamped in dejection, he trudged his way through the door and out of the temple, headed for nowhere in particular.

A crestfallen Minako turned back to the other two girls and gazed at them with remarkably sullen eyes. "Drop the brooch, Rei," she commanded softly.

"What? Why?" Rei inquired.

The leader of the senshi turned her eyes to the freshly swept wood floor. "I believe there's something far more important that we have to do right now," she replied in a terse whisper. "The brooch can wait for now."

"Well, what are we going to do then?" Makoto asked anxiously, looking up at the pallid Minako with an apprehensive visage.

"We're going to notify Ami's mother of her daughter's death," Minako said solemnly. That simple declaration utterly stunned the two girls who were sitting on the floor and, up to that point, were bashing the nearly indestructible brooch against the hardwood surface.

"How are we going to do that without revealing our identities?" an astounded Rei asked keenly as her eyes were fixated on the troubled blonde.

"I don't know, and that's what we need to figure out," Minako reluctantly admitted. She drew and expelled a small sigh. "But, it's something we absolutely have to do," she continued to say in a more resolute tone. "Think about it. Her mother will find out soon that her daughter is missing and she will be extremely worried and anxious about what happened. She'll likely go to the police, but they obviously won't be able to do anything for her." She slowly stepped toward the seated girls and turned her narrowed, focused eyes downward to gaze intently at their jade-green and violet counterparts. "How would either of you feel in her situation if you had a child that disappeared into thin air and you had no clue how or why?"

"I would feel absolutely miserable. Sick to my stomach," Makoto answered softly.

"Utterly depressed. I don't know if I could survive such a thing," Rei said with equal somberness.

"And I would feel the exact same way," Minako said. "Now, we know what happened to Ami, but the question is how do we reveal that to her mother without giving away too much?"

A deathly silence enveloped the temple as the three girls contemplated within their minds as thoroughly as they could how to do precisely that. It was a tricky question to answer as Ami's body literally had disappeared. The lack of a body made it almost impossible to say that she had died by more earthly means, at least in ways the girls could have witnessed. If one of the girls were sufficiently enterprising and dishonest, she could have proposed, somehow, that Ami accidentally had fallen into Tokyo Bay and that her body had been swept out to sea. That would have lead to the obvious follow-up question of why any of the girls were in that area in the first place, but it would have at least explained why there was no body to be found. Another possible suggestion would have been to say that she was abducted, which was not far from the truth as her soul was captured by Zoisite, but the girls did not know that crucial detail and were fearful that such an idea would create false hope for her return. Ultimately none of the girls could find a suitable answer to Minako's question.

"I… I don't think there's any way to let Mizuno-sensei know that Ami died without telling her that her daughter was Sailor Mercury," Makoto said, breaking the quiet after several tense moments.

"I agree," Rei added with a hint of sorrow. "I think at this time she deserves to know."

Minako closed her eyes and sighed deeply. "That makes three of us," she whispered as she reopened her morose blue eyes and gazed rather blankly at the other two girls. They slowly nodded at her in agreement and in sympathy. "It just feels so strange, to suddenly have to reveal something that we've kept as a closely guarded secret for so long," she said dolefully.

Rei pushed herself up to her feet, walked up to Minako, and gently rested her hand on the sullen blonde's shoulder. "I feel the same way. But, it's something we have to do," she said as reassuringly as she could while staring directly into her eyes.

Makoto also stood and walked to her leader, embracing her with one arm. "And it's something we're going to do together," she added resolutely while giving a small smile.

The willing support from her fellow senshi drew a smile from Minako and lightened her mood. "Thank you, you two," she said with utter sincerity. She gently pushed herself away from them and walked to the main table and pulled her cell phone from the bag that leaned against one of the legs. "I figure we might as well give her a heads up that we're coming to visit her," she said astutely.

—|1|**2**|3|4|5|—

"It's been a long time since I've been so interested in shopping like that," Saeko said with a small laugh as she carried a handful of bags into the foyer of her house. Usagi followed closely behind with bags of her own.

"I'm sorry if I made you spend too much on me," Usagi said remorsefully, her head hanging slightly.

"No, Usagi-san, it's nothing that should bother you," Saeko replied with a supportive tone. She set the bags down on the sofa and walked into the kitchen. "I think it may actually be a good idea for you to revamp your wardrobe, given that you are no longer a little girl but a far more mature young woman." As she spoke, she removed a pair of glasses from the cupboard.

Usagi blushed when she heard the compliment from Saeko. "T-thanks," she replied cheerfully. The red slowly faded from her cheeks. "But, I still think I might have gone too far," she added in a softer tone.

Saeko walked up to Usagi holding a glass of water in each hand. She offered one of the glasses to the girl, who gladly accepted it as she set the bags she was holding on the sofa next to the others and carefully grabbed the glass.

"Nonsense. You did need some clothes of your own, after all," the doctor said as she nonchalantly leaned against the top of the sofa. "We couldn't go back to your place, after all, and I think we both feel a little weird with you wearing something of Ami's right now."

Usagi looked down at herself. She was wearing a simple light blue sundress that ended just at her knees and a white button-down sweater. Both were a little loose on her but fit well overall. However, she felt justifiably uncomfortable in them as it was a dress and a sweater she had seen her best friend occasionally wear. It was fitting, if not absolutely necessary for the sake of her sanity, to have her own clothing to wear for the duration of her time with Saeko. But she didn't expect to spend _that_ much time with Ami's mother. She had purchased so much attire that she could have worn something different every day for an entire month. That wasn't her intention, but things just snowballed and neither one of them seemed all that eager to stop.

"I guess you're right on that account," Usagi replied quietly. She took a sip of the refreshingly cold water and thought about changing the subject to something less depressing. "That woman from before was weird, wasn't she?" she abruptly blurted, visibly jolting Saeko.

"Huh? What woman?"

"The one that knocked me over earlier and didn't even offer much of an apology," Usagi answered, her loud tone revealing her disgust at the stranger's behavior.

"Yeah, I agree with you there," Saeko said with curt nod. "At the very least she could have helped you to your feet instead of nearly marching right over you."

A sudden chill shot through Usagi, causing the young blonde to shiver involuntarily despite the sweater she wore. She hurried over to the dining room and set the glass down on the table before she accidentally dropped it. Then, she collapsed into one of the chairs, doubled over, and started to breathe loudly and heavily, almost to the point of hyperventilation. Saeko rushed over to Usagi's side and attempted to calm her. Her breathing returned to a normal rate almost as soon as the doctor tenderly placed her hands on Usagi's shoulder and back.

"What's wrong, Usagi-san?" Saeko asked worriedly.

Usagi looked up at the concerned woman with haunted eyes. "I wish I could tell you it was nothing," she started to say in a slow, drawn-out voice, "but I felt something similar right before I went to the photo studio and ran into Kunzite. I… I think it's an omen of some kind, telling me something bad is going to happen."

"Did you have any visions of what may happen?" Saeko asked delicately.

The anxious blond girl shook her head. "No, it's nothing like that," she said with frustration. "I wish it were more like some of my dreams, but instead it's more of a feeling."

Saeko momentarily looked up at the ceiling, her cool and analytical mind deep in thought. She returned her gaze to Usagi when she asked, with a combination of intense focus and motherly compassion, "Do you happen to know what may have triggered the reaction?"

"I was thinking about that woman we were talking about and how rude she was when it happened," Usagi replied softly. A small spark ignited in her eyes as she remembered another detail. "Come to think of it, I felt something strange when she ran into me. Like there was some kind of energy coming off of her. Really dark energy, intensely dark, but nothing like what I can remember any member of the Shitennou having." She paused momentarily as she collected herself and tried to remember more about the encounter. "But… now that I think about it, she very well may have been with them."

Saeko's cheeks blanched when she heard that, as she could readily surmise from Usagi's earlier revelations and this new information that the Dark Kingdom was intently searching for the young princess. However, they had literally run into one of the agents from the opposing force, and yet nothing had happened. Did that adversary not recognize Usagi? It could have been possible, as she was not wearing her trademark pigtails and odangos hairstyle. Pretty much anyone could distinguish her and identify her from a crowd when she was wearing that peculiar style, and because of that they both agreed it was a good idea for her to let her hair down before they left. However, even without the hair, Saeko imagined that they would have another way of identifying her. It would have been the energy she exuded, the same energy Ikuko felt that alerted her that there was much more to her daughter than an average schoolgirl. If a civilian—granted, a civilian who was visited by Queen Serenity and, presumably, granted the ability to sense the warm radiance of the princess—could perceive that, so could the Dark Kingdom. Therefore, there had to be another reason why the enemy ran right into her target and did not even bat an eye.

"You're probably right, Usagi-san," Saeko said with palpable distress despite her attempt to remain calm. "We have to be very careful now if they're looking for you."

Saeko felt a light vibration in her jacket pocket and immediately interpreted the source to be her cell phone. She removed the phone from her pocket and glanced at the number on the outer screen. A deep furrow appeared along her brow as she struggled to determine the owner of that number, as no name was given alongside it. Clearly it wasn't any of her fellow doctors and nurses, nor was it Usagi's parents. _"If it's somebody important, they will call right back,"_ she reasoned as the device vibrated once more before falling silent. A few seconds later, the phone began to vibrate once again, and once again the screen displayed the same number. She flipped open the phone and pressed the "call answer" button before raising the handset to her ear.

"Hello?" she asked apprehensively, unsure who was calling at such a critical time.

"Hi. Mizuno-sensei? It's Minako," the girl replied with an equivalently uneasy tone.

"Aino-san?" Saeko asked in shock. Usagi was equally stunned, although both quickly guessed why the leader of the senshi and the girl who forcefully ejected Usagi from the group was calling. With a slight nod of encouragement from the wide-eyed blonde, Saeko spoke once again, if only to determine what the caller wanted to do. "Why are you calling?" she asked with only a modicum of surprise in her voice.

"There's something very important we need to tell you," Minako attempted to say while masking her sorrow as she instinctively referred to her group of senshi.

"What is it?" Saeko asked calmly.

"I… It's not something I feel I can say over the phone," Minako replied sullenly. "I tried to see if you were at the hospital but the receptionist said you were on vacation." There was a short pause on the line before she hesitantly asked, "Do you happen to be at home?"

"Yes, I am, but I won't be for long. If you want to come by I would suggest doing so as quickly as possible," Saeko replied with waning evenness. It was becoming difficult for her to hide her disdain for the person she was talking to, knowing how much emotional pain she and the other girls heaped upon Usagi.

"That's fine. We'll be over as soon as possible," Minako replied hurriedly.

With that statement, and with quick goodbyes uttered on both sides, Saeko ended the call. She placed the phone back into her pocket and looked at Usagi with unabashed concern.

"Usagi-san, it looks like the girls will be coming over shortly," she said with blatant displeasure.

Usagi gave a dejected sigh and a resigned nod. "Yeah. I figured they would want to tell you about Ami at some point," she said. "It would have been impossible to keep that a secret. I only wonder what they will actually tell you."

"Does it really matter?" Saeko cynically asked, although her ire clearly was not directed at the girl who suddenly looked up at the doctor with wide eyes. "I already know what truly happened. Whatever they tell me, if they were to try to lie or even tell the truth, is redundant," she said in a more gentle tone. She gazed at Usagi and, as if knowing the mere presence of the girls who twice abandoned her would utterly devastate her, gave her a warm smile. "I'll keep the meeting as short as possible—take whatever condolences they'll inevitably offer and usher them away."

"Thank you, Saeko-san," Usagi said as she wrapped her arms around Saeko's waist and rested her head against the woman's hip in a light yet heartfelt embrace. She soon released the hug and looked up into comforting auburn eyes. "It's not that I completely hate them, but I certainly don't like them anymore, and I don't think I can stand to be around them for a long, long, _long_ time. Not after what they did to me."

"I fully understand, and I'll absolutely make sure they won't find out that you're here," Saeko said soothingly while tenderly placing her hands on both of Usagi's shoulders.

—|1|2|**3**|4|5|—

"_Was that who I think it was?"_ Sazaratha asked herself as she spun around and captured a departing glimpse of the teenage girl in a light-blue dress and white sweater she had knocked to the ground moments before.

That strange, yet very familiar looking, girl was demonstrably short, not even five feet tall. She had very long—and utterly gorgeous by Sazaratha's own, quickly suppressed, opinion—golden-blond hair that came dangerously close to touching the ground. Furthermore, the girl had amazing sapphire-blue eyes that were positively radiant even while looking up in disbelief at being so rudely bowled over. The effusive radiance did not stop at her eyes, and it seemed her entire body willingly emitted a warm, positive energy.

It was a force that astounded and, at the same time, completely disgusted Sazaratha as it naturally opposed her own dark, sinister glow. Yet, as much as she loathed that lovely energy she also was confounded by it, for it was not like anything she had ever observed. Kunzite had notified her of the type of energy the princess released, the knowledge of which he obtained from his lengthy battle with her. This girl had an energy that was similarly warm, if not even warmer, but it was demonstrably _different_. She had features that were similar to those possessed by the princess, and yet there were niggling dissimilarities. Sazaratha didn't know why or how a girl could be so similar to the princess and to her target and, at the same time, be so unique, and that question started to drive her nuts. It wasn't the emission of Sailor Moon, as she knew that senshi and the princess were one in the same. Nor was it the signal of any of the other planetary senshi, particularly Venus. She knew that it was easy to mistake the two girls if one failed to carefully detect the different auras they projected. This mysterious girl had to be someone different, and that alone warranted further investigation as she might threaten her plans for tracking and capturing the princess.

She started to run in the direction the girl and that woman had traveled. After sprinting for a block she stopped, an expression of disappointment scrawled on her face. She had lost track of the girl, despite the enormous amount of energy her new target unwittingly exuded. Her disappointment turned to worry. If she couldn't find someone that powerful even after physically running into her, how would she be able to find the princess, someone she had never encountered and only knew from the intelligence Kunzite shared with her? Her pale indigo eyes darted around in one last attempt to locate the perplexing blonde, but to no avail. However, those eyes did find a nearby deserted alley in which she could hide while sending a message to Kunzite. She dived into that darkened passageway and stood beside a dumpster, which fortuitously obscured the faint yellow light her body emitted as she initiated the telepathic link.

"_Sazaratha, did you manage to find the princess?"_ Kunzite said with a tone that was either hopeful or annoyed depending on one's perspective. Sazaratha interpreted it as the latter.

"_Not yet. However, I did find—"_

Before she could say much more, she was interrupted by Kunzite who, if not annoyed before, was certainly irritated by that confession. _"Well, if you haven't located the princess, then why are you talking to me right now?"_ he asked forcefully.

"_Damnit, Kunzite! If you'd quit being such a pain in the ass and listen, you'd find out!"_ she exclaimed angrily. She took a deep breath to calm herself as she didn't want to continue her eruption at the one person who was the key to her promotion. _"I didn't find the princess, but I found someone who looked similar and had a similar, and yet more potent, aura,"_ she said much more calmly, although the edge in her voice didn't completely disappear.

There was a short pause as he tried to comprehend what she had told him. _"You say this girl had a similar appearance to the civilian form of the princess?"_

"_Yes,"_ she replied curtly. _"She had the same golden hair although it was straight and not in the style you showed me, the same eyes, and the same general stature. But she didn't have the same energy that the princess had."_

"_Hmm… Someone who looks the same and yet doesn't have the same energy signature as the princess…"_ he said with a contemplative drawl. _"My first guess is that it's someone who is related to the princess in some fashion. But, how would we not know about such a person?"_

"_I have no idea. But I do think she's intriguing enough to keep tabs on."_

"_Maybe so. Do you happen to know where she is?"_

"_I last saw her in the commercial district, but she got away from me,"_ she admitted with a hint of gloominess. _"There was no trace of her at all, not even her energy."_

He released a disappointed sigh, which both depressed and infuriated the proud Sazaratha. _"Don't you see why this is a more difficult job than you first thought and why no mere youma is capable of doing it?"_ he asked in a tone that was all too patronizing. He didn't wait for her to answer before speaking again. _"Anyway, I think your priority right now should be to continue as you were in hunting the princess. If we can find her before this other person realizes her princess was taken then the whole matter becomes moot."_

"_Right,"_ a thoroughly aggravated Sazaratha responded. _"I'll inform you when I _do_ find the princess."_ She swiftly terminated the mental link before Kunzite could say anything else to further infuriate her. She slouched against the brick wall upon which she was leaning and sighed in frustration.

"Where the hell are you, princess?" she mumbled in a terse whisper before teleporting in a wisp of black smoke out of the alley and to the first of the places she wanted to check.

—|1|2|3|**4**|5|—

A lone and woefully depressed white cat meandered down the sidewalk, unsure of where his legs were taking him. It had been thirty minutes since his owner and charge had forced him away, and yet Artemis was no less heartbroken. He had lost Minako's trust and she had abandoned him with such relentless cruelty that he wondered if he would ever be welcomed by her again. His feet stopped moving and his head drooped as a sudden realization dawned on him.

"_This… this must have been the exact same thing Usagi felt,"_ he reasoned sadly. _"I'd hate to even imagine how much this must have hurt her. She is far too gentle for such misery."_

His body reflexively stiffened as he felt a small hand lightly stroke his back. In his sullen mood he had failed to notice the young girl who had approached him and had begun to tenderly caress him while whispering something to him with such dulcet tones. Under most circumstances, he wouldn't have minded the contact and the soothing rubs would have relaxed his spirit. But he didn't want such consolation from a stranger, no matter how innocently she offered it. Besides, she couldn't have known what truly troubled him. In his despondent mental state he only cared for and sought the comfort of two individuals: his darling counterpart in Luna and the girl she advised. So, it was when the girl, who was no older than seven, tried to pick him up in her delicate hands and cradle him that he felt the impulse to lash out at her. He swung his paws out at her, harshly striking her arms and causing her to unceremoniously drop him to the pavement. He darted away from the bawling child as quickly as he could. He absolutely didn't want to hurt her, but he had to escape, to get away and find the two he held most dear.

Five minutes later he found the distinctive red-tiled house that marked the residence of Usagi and Luna. In front of the house were three very large moving trucks. Workers were busy hauling a large wooden crate, the contents of which he did not know, out of the back gate and onto the lift decks of one of the trucks. He became filled with fear as he did not know what to think from the scene other than the plain fact Usagi's family was moving away, and in a hurry at that.

"_I hope this has nothing to do with what Minako and the other girls did to her,"_ he thought as he hid behind a large bush and steadily observed the movers. _"In any case, we're in a world of trouble if Usagi and Luna leave. I doubt the other girls would be able to handle any youma battles alone, even with new powers."_

Any further rumination on what effect Usagi's departure would have on their future battles came to a crashing halt as an intensely dark presence materialized over him.

"Oh, what a cute little kitty," a woman with wavy blond hair and frighteningly pale indigo eyes said with a sinister tone. She pointed a wry grin at the startled cat. "What is such a precious thing like you doing here all alone?"

Artemis tried to run away from the evil he knew was hovering over him. He willed his legs to move but, for some reason, they would not heed his commands. He gulped audibly as the woman—Sazaratha—bent down to her knees and grasped the snow-white cat in a tight but far from loving embrace. He hissed irately at the pale woman, who merely narrowed her focused eyes and returned a perplexed look.

"Come on now, Artemis," she said derisively, which served to further shock the cat and onetime advisor to the senshi. She slowly tightened her grip as she walked along the sidewalk away from Usagi's house and into the back lot of a house she knew to be vacant. "I _know_ you can talk, so don't play dumb with me."

Artemis remained silent, staring at his captor with a dumbfounded expression for a few more moments as her grasp tightened and became ever more excruciating. He found it difficult to breathe and to think with the pressure she was placing on his throat. Black spots began to form in his blurring vision. Soon the pain and dizziness was overwhelming and he knew he couldn't maintain the charade much longer if he wanted to survive.

"W-who are y-you?" Artemis stuttered, the words barely able to escape his mouth.

"Ah, so you decide to talk after all," Sazaratha said with fake surprise as she slowly loosened the grip around Artemis's neck, allowing him to take heavy, labored breaths. She glared at the frightened cat with intense eyes that conveyed her utter seriousness. "Just so you know, I'll be the one asking questions, not you. If I feel you aren't giving me satisfactory answers, or if you lie to me, then you will die a slow and agonizingly painful death. Do you understand me?" she said with a chillingly calm voice.

"Y-yes," he replied with a pained whisper. He also nodded his head to convey his comprehension of what she wanted from him, just in case.

"Good," she said, giving him a curious wink.

She sat down on the soft grass and began to stroke the squirming cat. To an outsider it appeared as if she was affectionately petting the cat, but he felt anything but friendliness in her strokes. Indeed, after a few moments he could feel nothing at all below his neck. She had induced within him a paralysis far more severe than what he felt when he first encountered the evil woman. The only movements he could make were with his eyes, ears, and mouth. She did make sure he could still breathe, as he needed to breathe in order to speak. Her grip loosened substantially as she didn't have to worry anymore about the pesky feline running away.

"Now that I have your full attention," she said with a smirk, "I'm going to begin with a few simple questions. First, what on Earth is going on over there?" She pointed toward Usagi's house and all the moving trucks.

His eyes widened slightly at the shock of the question, as even in his torment he quickly realized that the woman knew of Usagi's secret identity, and probably much, much more. "I-it looks as if th-they're moving," he struggled to say.

"Well, of _course_ they're moving, but to where?" she angrily replied.

"I d-d-don't k-know…" he said softly. He feared that his ignorance of the situation that he had just discovered himself a few minutes prior would cost him his life.

"You don't know, or you're just trying to hide what you do know?" she retorted, her glare becoming fiercer.

"H-hon-honestly… I-I don't know…" A tear started to fall from his dim blue eyes onto his matted white fur.

"Why not? Why wouldn't you know?" she asked with greater intensity in her voice, although the volume did not increase all that much.

He thought carefully and for several seconds about what to say in response, as he knew saying the wrong thing would be fatal. "I-I wasn't there. I was with the other girls. I highly doubt they know anything either," he slowly revealed.

"Are you lying to me?" she spat as she turned the white cat over and slowly started to stroke Artemis's stomach.

"N-no!" he exclaimed with unbearable suffering in his voice as he felt a burning sensation envelop his entire body. As he was still completely paralyzed, he could do nothing to stem the pain. It was absolute torture. "P-please! I'm telling you the truth!" he yelled, tears streaming unabated from his eyes.

A small smile briefly adorned her lips as she stopped her hand. She knew she was obtaining some vital information with her interrogation of the remaining advisor to the senshi. She knew he mainly worked with Venus and the other inner senshi, and so if he were with them the entire time and he was unaware of the developments going on at the princess's house, then it was plausible they had no knowledge either.

"If you were with the other senshi as you say, then what are you doing here?" she asked.

"I was looking for Luna," he replied in a rough whisper.

"_So he doesn't even know what happened to Luna? That's even better news than I expected,"_ she thought as she glowered at the despicable cat in her arms. _"That likely means the other senshi are equally clueless of what's happening with their princess. Maybe it'll be a good idea to find out what they _do_ know."_

"Artemis, tell me what the senshi were doing when you were with them," she demanded in a deceptively calm tone.

His eyes widened in a combination of fear and shock as he knew that, if he were to tell them the truth, that he would reveal a crucial weakness about the state of the senshi to an enemy. He couldn't possibly tell them that they had confiscated Usagi's transformation brooch and that they were trying to extract the Silver Crystal from it. If they learned that information, they would immediately know where the crystal was and would probably spare no youma in ensuring they had the crystal in their hands. The three remaining senshi would stand no chance in such a fight. Furthermore, an absolutely truthful revelation would reveal that there was intense conflict within the group, not just between Usagi and the other girls but between himself and Minako.

"Well?" she exclaimed as she pressed for an answer. Her hand hovered over his stomach once again and he knew he had to say something fast.

"They were…" He looked up at the irrepressible eyes and the hand that promised so much inexorable pain. "They were talking about how they were going to tell Mercury's mother that her daughter had died."

"Is that all?" she asked as her hand threateningly approached the pale fur.

"Y-yes!" he yelled, determined to convince her of the lie. Well, not a complete lie, as he and Minako had discussed that prior to their argument and his expulsion. But, he deftly excluded the details of Rei and Makoto struggling to open Usagi's transformation brooch and the fact that the discussion was brief and did not include either of the two senshi.

Sazaratha smirked at Artemis. "And what was the outcome of that discussion?" she asked, her dark tone plainly revealing her disbelief of his answer.

"Um…" That was not a question for which he had a clear answer. Minako and he had failed to come to an agreement on what to do. Furthermore, he was absent for any further deliberations between the senshi and so he did not know what they would have done. He refused to even hazard a guess, given the recent unpredictability of the girls' behaviors.

"I take that to mean you don't know, as in you're lying to me," she said coldly. She started to rub the cat's stomach in a sweeping circular pattern. The cat's eyes glazed over, and soon he was rendered unconscious. She waved her hand over the cat's unmoving body and it vaporized with a soft flash of gold light.

"_I'll deal with you later, Artemis,"_ she thought as she pushed herself to her feet. _"I know you're hiding something, but I'll find out later. Right now, I have to deal with finding your princess."_

—|1|2|3|4|**5**|—

"Well, are you all ready for this?" Minako nervously asked as her curled fist rested a few inches from the massive wooden door to Saeko's house.

"Absolutely," Makoto said steadfastly as she gazed at Minako's trembling hand.

"I don't think I would do this any other way," Rei resolutely added.

Minako took in a deep breath and held it for a second before slowly releasing it. She felt a pleasant calm envelop her body as she exhaled the air. With the unwavering support of her fellow senshi, she knew she could follow through with the plan. Her hand fell against the door with a loud thud. She repeated it three more times. The only thing they could do was await Ami's mother. They did not have to wait long, as a few seconds later the door slowly opened and Saeko gazed at the trio with dispassionate eyes.

"Hello, Mizuno-sensei," Minako said softly but with as much determination as she could muster.

"Aino-san, Kino-san, Hino-san…" Saeko said evenly with only the slightest nod to acknowledge the girls in front of her. "I believe I know what you're going to say, but you may come in anyway. I do warn you once again that I don't have too much time."

The three girls accepted her invitation and slowly stepped through the threshold into the tiled foyer of the rather large house. They had been there a few times before and were always awed by the exquisite design touches she had made throughout. At that moment, however, their wonderment was muted by the news they had to deliver and the strange temperament of the person to whom they were to deliver that news. Tears started to well in Minako's eyes as she looked up at the doctor, and she knew her strength was being tested. She decided to speak as quickly and straightforwardly as she could before she broke down in front of the woman.

"Mizuno-sensei, I'm sorry to have to tell you this," she started with her voice wobbling. "We all deeply apologize and hope that you can forgive us, but Ami is… she's…"

"Dead," Saeko said calmly, finishing Minako's sentence for her. "I know."

All three girls looked up at the doctor with utter shock clearly displayed in their widened eyes and slack jaws. None of them could figure out how she could have known. The outside possibility that Usagi may have notified Ami's mother did enter their minds, but they quickly dismissed it as they could not fathom how the person they believed responsible for their friend's death could care enough to notify her mother. Beyond that, they were out of ideas.

"Don't worry about how I know," Saeko said with a hint of frostiness. "I do thank you all for notifying me and for your condolences." She glanced at their stunned expressions. "I'm fine right now, so don't worry about that either, although I will continue to mourn my daughter's death."

Makoto hesitantly approached Saeko, unsure of what to say or do given that she apparently knew half of what they were going to tell her beforehand. They did have something else that they wanted to reveal, something they were certain the woman could not already know.

"There's more that we have to tell you," the tall brunette slowly uttered.

Saeko turned her stoic gaze to Makoto. "I'm sure there's a lot more that you want to say and that you feel you desperately need to tell me," she said somewhat harshly before sighing in an attempt to calm herself. She succeeded, continuing in a voice that was mostly bereft of any emotion. "However, do rest assured that I'm satisfied right now knowing what I currently know. Maybe sometime in the future I will ask you for that information, but I do not believe right now is the time for that."

The girls exchanged silent glances between each other that were intermixed with blank stares at Saeko. If they were confused before, the doctor's refusal to even entertain any sort of explanation for how Ami died certainly flabbergasted them. In a way it relieved them as they no longer had to reveal their secret identities, but it left them with even more questions than they had before they decided to speak with her.

"Now, I do have to leave soon and I need to prepare. Thank you once again for coming by," Saeko said curtly as she raised both of her arms outward from her body and waved them in a gesture meant to usher them toward the door. After one last glance at the enigmatic doctor, the girls slowly turned and walked through the door that Saeko kindly—eagerly, even—opened for them and into the cool late-morning air that greeted them. None of them knew that the brief and very awkward meeting would be their last time visiting that marvelous residence with Saeko as its occupant.

As far as the venerable doctor was concerned, she was perfectly fine with that.


	28. Apprehension

**Chapter 28: Apprehension**

Usagi slowly crept down the stairs after she heard the door slam shut. She was perched at the top of the stairs and had an excellent vantage point to listen to the encounter between Saeko and her former friends without them noticing her presence. She had hid from them, not because she was afraid they would try to attack her (although, given their previous meeting, it was not completely beyond the realm of possibility) but because she did not feel any desire to see any of them. She did not like them at all, which if described for any other person would have elicited a blasé response, but for a remarkable soul as loving and caring as Usagi, it was absolutely serious. For her, the emotion of hatred belonged to a special category and was reserved only for enemies of the Earth and Silver Millennium—and Mamoru at one point, although her opinion of him had improved considerably since her conversation with him. Normal people were loved, liked, or at least well regarded and given a modicum of consideration and compassion. Minako, Makoto, and Rei would not receive any such regard from Usagi, and it was deservedly so. The only consolation for them, if they ever became lucky enough to learn how Usagi truly felt about them, was that they hated her, which was the functionally equivalent emotion, and were happy to not have to see or deal with her again.

It was not to say that Minako, Makoto, or Rei were cruel and heartless individuals, which was the main reason they went to Saeko's house to notify her as sympathetically and as honestly as possible about the situation of Ami's death. They absolutely loved the girl as a friend and fellow senshi, and it pained them to even think about what her mother would feel by not being able to see her daughter again. It was with that mindset that they traveled to the rather large house and spoke with the normally calm and kindhearted woman.

There was one small issue with their plan: they just did not expect Saeko to already know, not just that her daughter was killed, not just that she was one of the Sailor Senshi, but that they were senshi too. Of course, she learned all that crucial information from the one person they strongly doubted would be caring enough to inform her of such a thing. The intelligent and adroit thinker that she was, she deftly neglected to divulge to them her complete understanding of the situation. By putting on a stoic façade in an attempt to mask her contempt for the teens that were largely unwelcome in her house, she did what she could to shepherd them out as quickly as possible without any of them suspecting a thing. The small, warm smile that snuck onto Usagi's lips as she slid down the steps conveyed her satisfaction of the fact that Saeko succeeded with flying colors.

"Thank you so much, Saeko-san," Usagi said softly as she reached the bottom step of the staircase.

Saeko walked up to Usagi and gently placed a hand on her shoulder. "I'm only doing what I know and feel to be right," she replied calmly and with a bright smile. "I didn't want them around any longer than you did. I just hope I wasn't too obvious in my disdain for them."

"I don't think so," Usagi said. "I kinda like the way you told them off, actually. If it were me, I probably would've exploded at them in the way Rei typically explodes at me and it would have ended in a huge mess." Not that she wanted to inflame the situation any further, but the idea of her standing up to them in a place where they were limited in their response was funny to her and she started to laugh.

"Well, I'm glad it ended better than that," Saeko said with a light chuckle of her own. She led Usagi down from the last step and into the living room. "Anyway, there's no need to talk about them anymore. There are much more important things, such as what to get for lunch before going up to see your family," she said in a reassuring tone and ending with a friendly wink.

The smile on Usagi's face grew even larger after that comment, and why not? For one, she was hungry despite having eaten breakfast only a few hours earlier. But the other reason, the more pertinent reason, was that she found the comment utterly amusing. The girls weren't so important to her anymore. That's not the same as saying they weren't important at all, but regaining her friendships with them did not attract the same level of importance as they did only twenty-four hours prior. She would have accepted renewed friendships with the girls if they willingly, and sincerely, offered it to her, but she knew the probability of that was nil, and she wasn't about to seek it herself. And so, what remained was the most important question of the late morning.

"Pizza," was the only thing Usagi said, her tone even yet resolute.

"Huh? Why pizza?" Saeko asked perplexedly in response.

"Because… it's been a long time since I've had any. Months, even," Usagi replied. As preposterous as it sounded, it was the truth.

"What about at Crown? Don't they serve pizza?" Saeko asked with one of her eyebrows raised in skepticism.

"Nope. I wish they did, but then Motoki-kun would have a harder time keeping the machines clean than he already has," Usagi replied with a light smirk.

Saeko sighed, although it was one of resignation and acceptance more than disappointment. "I try not to eat pizza too often, especially pepperoni for a multitude of reasons, but I think now is a good time for an exception to that," she said while she shook her tilted head and smiled simultaneously.

"Really?" A bright gleam formed in Usagi's sapphire-blue eyes.

"Yes," Saeko said with a curt nod. "I know a place my ex-husband took me a few times when we were dating and while we were married. It's still around, and it has some of the best pizza in all of Tokyo, let alone Minato. It's not particularly nearby, but it's not too far out of the way to drive there and then to the hospital," she said. By then she was returning Usagi's gaze with an almost majestic resplendence of her own in her auburn eyes.

"You're sure it's not too much of a hassle?" Usagi's compassionate personality would not willingly allow her to place unnecessary burdens on others, especially kindhearted souls like Saeko.

The doctor shook her head before looking at the girl with those same bright and caring eyes. "It truly is fine, Usagi-san," she said confidently. She raised her arm outward, pointing at the door leading to the garage where her sedan was parked. "Now, shall we go?" she asked.

Usagi nodded vigorously and, without a moment's hesitation, started to walk toward the door. She was not about to press the issue much further, not when there was free pizza at stake.

—|1|**2**|3|4|5|6|—

"Could somebody tell me what just happened back there?"

Makoto still was partially shell-shocked by the reception she had received from Ami's mother. She was not alone with that sentiment. None of the girls had recovered from the utter surprise they felt when they attempted to reveal the circumstances behind the death of one of their comrades to her mother. The venerable doctor clearly knew more than they expected her to know. How much she knew was a complete mystery to them, but at the very least they did not anticipate her having advance knowledge of Ami's death. Thus, they were not prepared for that eventuality and had no way to respond to either her knowledge or to her frosty demeanor toward them. They spent the entire time walking to Crown Fruit Parlor in absolute silence. Makoto's perplexed question was the first thing any of them said aloud in several minutes.

"I'm still trying to wrap my head around that one," Rei whispered sullenly. Her muted violet eyes were fixed on a not terribly interesting spot of the glossy, light-pink table surface as her mind sank deeper into thought.

A young woman with bright orange hair walked up to the depressed group with a small writing pad in one hand and a pencil in the other. At first glance, she was merely a waitress at the café, one of several, but to the people she was about to serve she also was a close acquaintance and Motoki's younger sister. For the normally fiery girl with raven-colored hair, their waitress was a classmate.

"Hey guys! I'm glad you came by! What can I get you all?" Unazuki Furuhata asked cheerfully with a bright shine in her green eyes. She quickly noticed the glum mood of the three girls and her mood shifted to one of concern. "You guys look so depressed. What happened?"

Rei slowly turned her head to look at her classmate, a move that was echoed by the other two girls. None of them knew exactly what to say to Unazuki at that moment. Fortunately, the waitress noticed that there were only three girls there instead of the four she had often seen in recent times, and had unwittingly given them an opening to provide some kind of excuse.

"Where's Ami-chan?" Unazuki innocently asked.

"She's… gone," Rei replied softly.

"Moved," Minako hastily added with empahsis. "She didn't even have an opportunity to tell any of us."

"We don't even know where yet," Makoto followed, deftly picking up on the story that the blonde was spinning.

"Oh… I see. That's why you all feel that way," Unazuki said sympathetically with a slight nod of her head. "I guess I would be pretty upset too if one of my best friends moved away without telling me." Her mood brightened quickly and her tone became optimistic. "However, it should be pretty easy for all of you to keep in touch, so it's not like she's gone forever."

All three girls simultaneously and reflexively shook their heads as they instantly recognized the bitter irony. They were careful to keep their movements subtle, however, lest they accidentally revealed more than they intended.

"Yeah…" Minako said with her voice trailing off. She then passed her gaze over her two friends before turning them up at the waitress. "Anyway, I think we should get something. I want a peach smoothie myself," she said as she donned a mask of artificial happiness to conceal her confusion and consternation.

—|1|2|**3**|4|5|6|—

"_So if she's not at home, then she's probably at one of the two hospitals around here,"_ Sazaratha thought as she took a few more minutes to study the activity around Usagi's house from afar.

The peculiar thing she noticed was that the movers entered the grounds from the rear entrance with large cardboard boxes or wooden crates, and then left with the same boxes or crates. It was difficult for her to tell what was inside the containers from her vantage point. In fact, it was hard to determine much of what was occurring at the house as the tall wall that surrounded the rear garden obscured much of her view.

"_I don't know what they're doing, but it may be important that I notify Kunzite of this development,"_ she pondered. With that, she dropped down to a more concealed location and activated her telepathic link with Kunzite, her body faintly glowing yellow during the process.

"_I certainly hope this message is more important than the last one,"_ Kunzite said flatly.

"_It is,"_ Sazaratha replied tersely. _"The princess's family is moving, to where I don't know. I see three separate moving trucks at her house. Neither the princess nor her family is there, so I think this is something they planned earlier."_

"_Interesting…"_ he said with fascination, but mainly to himself. His tone then became more serious as he once again addressed Sazaratha. _"I'll pass this to Zoisite and let him figure out if this is something we should be concerned about. However, you do know that if you find the princess all of this becomes moot, right?"_

She grumbled audibly, although she was careful not to pass those choice words over the link. Instead she sent him other, equally passionate words. _"Don't think for a moment I don't already know that, Kunzite,"_ she said heatedly. A smirk came to her face, and she wished he could see it. _"You should be concerned with what you're going to do with her when I find her. That is, unless you _want_ a repeat of last time."_

"_That's not going to happen this time. I have a plan for capturing the princess,"_ he said resolutely, ignoring the verbal barbs she sent at him.

"_So you say,"_ she replied derisively. _"Anyway, did you receive the package I sent you?"_

Kunzite turned his head and looked at the frozen body of a white cat that was suspended in a field of dark-violet energy. _"Yes, I did, although why you sent him here instead of disposing of him I have no idea,"_ he said with confusion.

"_I think he's holding onto some vital information that he won't divulge,"_ she said evenly. _"I managed to get him to speak and he revealed that the other senshi are separated from the princess and are way behind on current events. When I found him he was at the princess's house looking for Luna."_ A wry smile came to her lips. _"Why they're not together I don't know, but I think we can use that to our advantage."_

"_Indeed we can."_

If Sazaratha was looking for any form of compliment from the lead Shitennou general, she would have been sorely disappointed. That was the extent of compliments he was willing to give his enigmatic subordinate so long as she could hear him. Fortunately, she knew better than to expect such a thing.

"_In any case, keep an eye on him for me,"_ she said sardonically. _"I'll call you when I find the princess."_

The mental link abruptly terminated before he could make a reply to her snarky remark as she snuck one more peek in the direction of Usagi's house with narrowed eyes. There was no change in activity with the movers and still no sign of the princess. Clearly, she was gaining nothing by remaining there in silent observation. She gave a disappointed sigh and contemplated her next move. There were two hospitals in the immediate vicinity to which the princess's family could have been taken after emergency workers responded to the "accident." However, one of them employed the mother of the former Sailor Mercury. It was no guarantee the princess would be there, but it was worth a shot to check it out first.

—|1|2|3|**4**|5|6|—

There were three things that Usagi discovered that afternoon about Saeko and about herself. The first was that the venerable doctor was supremely capable of understatement, and her declaration that the restaurant at which she treated Usagi to lunch had some of the best pizza in Tokyo was a primary example. The young teen was absolutely flabbergasted by the selection of pizza that was available, and many of them were far more exotic than the typical fare. Fortunately her appetite was rather large and she was willing to be adventurous, as there were combinations of toppings that she never could imagine people being willing to eat. Yet, not only did none of the combinations she sampled make her nauseous but she genuinely found some of them quite scrumptious.

The second thing Usagi realized was that when something or somebody was stuck in her mind, it was incredibly difficult for her to remove it. In this case, it was somebody, and that somebody was the amazingly gorgeous and enigmatic Haruka Tenou, with whom she was absolutely smitten. Her thoughts were completely engulfed with the last time she was with the wonderfully stunning person despite the clear fact Haruka was partnered to the equally striking Michiru. The fact that Haruka was a woman never entered her mind, but only because she never knew. Nevertheless, the entire time she was with Saeko, a part of her mind wished she was being treated by Haruka. She desperately wanted to see Haruka's lovely smile across from her and listen to those incessantly charming flirts. She knew the probability of that ever happening was extraordinarily low. But low was not the same as none, and it never hurt to dream. That dream brought a glowing smile to her lips.

The third was that when Usagi was dead set upon completing a certain task, there was no force in the universe that could persuade her to do otherwise. Her family was eminently familiar with that aspect of her personality—they were the ones who had to attempt to awaken the comatose girl when she decided sleep was more important than anything. Conversely, when she resolved to transform herself into a more mature young woman and realized punctuality was one of the traits she needed to attain to achieve that goal, she almost never needed an alarm clock. The somewhat quirky attribute of hers was a stubborn pain at times, but that would not to be the case that afternoon. Instead it was a godsend.

Saeko opened the door and carefully guided Usagi into the patient's room where her mother and brother were calmly resting. Ikuko was sitting up in her bed reading a novel. Her lower right leg was wrapped in a massive plaster cast while a significantly smaller cast of the same material covered her left forearm. Upon noticing the sight of two long golden pigtails and the faint yet warm energy the girl radiated, she elatedly looked up at her daughter with a wide smile on her face and placed the book to the side of the bed. Suddenly, the novel no longer was interesting.

"It looks like you had a great time so far this morning, dear," Ikuko said cheerfully.

"Absolutely!" Usagi said joyfully as she ran up to her mother and gave her a loose yet heartfelt hug. She was still tentative when it came to giving her mom or her brother a full hug as their injuries were fresh and she didn't want to inadvertently hurt them any more than the crash had done.

"So, I imagine you enjoyed breakfast?" Ikuko asked with a deft wink of a sepia-toned eye.

"Very much—wait a minute…" Usagi said, at first cheerful but then with a suspicious tone as she quickly realized what her mother really meant by the question.

Both Ikuko and Saeko chuckled at the slight annoyance Usagi displayed, whereas Shingo snorted and displayed a wide, innocent-looking grin, the kind that instantly reveals one's guilt. Not that the girl truly was irritated by the pleasant culinary surprise, but she didn't expect pretty much everyone to know.

"Saeko-san was the one to suggest making you chocolate-chip pancakes," Ikuko said between giggles. "I, of course, agreed with her and relayed to her the exact way you like them done." The muffled sounds of guffawing emanating from Shingo's bed revealed one last part of the trick. "And Shingo over there was the one with the idea to hide the chocolate chips within the pancakes so you wouldn't notice them."

Usagi scowled at Shingo and bolted toward his bed. Scared and unnerved by his sister's reaction, he raised his arms over his head in an attempt to block her, but that move inadvertently left his body exposed. It was an opening Usagi willingly exploited once she reached his bedside as she bent down faster than he could respond and enveloped him in a tight, loving hug.

"Thank you so much," she said with enormous affection and a tender smile on her lips as she slowly pulled away from her stunned, wide-eyed brother. Not that the boy was clueless as to how much she cared for him and loved him despite all the times he pestered her, but that maneuver utterly surprised him. The bulk of his shock, however, came from the fact that she outwitted and outmaneuvered him, something that was rare. Or, at least, it was once before.

Ikuko began to laugh once again at the wonderful sight of the embrace and the amazed expression Shingo reflexively gave in response. "I just hope you two can stay that way once we get to Kyoto," she said merrily and with only the slightest hint of sarcasm.

It was during that wonderful time that fate decided to send Usagi another painful premonition. A chill much colder than ever before encapsulated her body and abrupt tremors involuntarily shot through her. She miraculously found the strength to pull herself away from Shingo and avoid unintentionally harming him before collapsing to her knees. Her quivering hands raced to her head, a desperate yet futile attempt to protect her psyche from the horrific visions that flooded her mind. She sealed her eyes shut, hoping that would stem the tide of the dreadful images, but they continued unabated. Withering under the full force of the mental assault, she failed to recognize that her breathing became heavy and raucous, her skin had turned pale and clammy, and that everyone in the room was staring at her in abject fear. Saeko immediately bent down to gently hold her and attempt to calm her, but that act seemed to have no effect on her. After what seemed to be an eternity to her, but was only a terribly long minute, the visions ceased and Usagi's shaking stopped. Yet, what she had seen left her far from relaxed.

"Usagi!" Ikuko shouted in concern and frustration from not being able to do anything for her daughter. "Are you okay? What happened?"

"I'm… fine…" Usagi slowly mumbled, although it was obvious she truly wasn't okay.

"Was it another premonition? Did you happen to see anything?" Saeko asked rapidly.

Usagi nodded her head, the movement causing heavy beads of sweat to fall from her brow and splatter against the cold tile floor. "I saw… It was all dark, extremely dark. I couldn't see anything except this ghastly woman… really tall woman with flaming red hair," she said softly and unevenly. "The only thing I could feel was pure evil and hatred. I couldn't move and I could barely speak. The only thing I could do was look at her as she… she…."

The tears started to flow from her sullen blue eyes and rolled down her pale cheeks. Her body started to shiver once again, ever so subtly. Saeko bent down to give her a caring embrace and to help her to her feet so she could walk to the person she truly wanted to hug once again. The doctor carefully led Usagi to Ikuko's bedside where the frantic girl launched herself into her mother's awaiting arms.

"It will be okay, my sweet child," Ikuko tenderly whispered into Usagi's ear as the girl forcefully cried into her shoulder. "It'll definitely be okay, because I believe in you."

Those words of support evoked a sharp gasp from Usagi amid her tears. She knew she always had the love and support of her mother when the only thing the woman discerned was a young, sometimes clumsy blonde that was below-average in school yet always tried her best when it truly mattered. That encouragement never waned when her mother learned of her near complete social abandonment and the desperate attempt to make herself a more mature and "useful" person. With Ikuko knowing she was a former senshi and presently endangered princess, the faith in her was as strong as ever. A small smile shakily crept onto her lips and the tears gradually abated.

Her trepidation understandably remained, but at that moment she felt a curious sensation, one of strength and resolve. She didn't know what her visions meant, at least regarding the parts she revealed to her family and Saeko. There was one part she withheld from them that she immediately understood and hoped never would come to fruition. That segment of mental images haunted her as she understood the vast power and frightening reliability of her premonitions. They never failed her. Whether they came to her in full force as the dream of her former friends attacking her with intent to kill, or as a sudden and mysterious wisp of cold air and mysterious negative emotions, the omens were always right. However, she vowed that she would never, _ever_, let that last vision occur, partially for her sake but mainly for theirs.

Usagi slowly pushed herself from Ikuko's loving embrace and turned her head so that her steely blue eyes pointed at a relieved Saeko. She knew what she needed to do in order to change her future.

"Saeko-san, no matter what happens from this point on you will go ahead and continue our plan, right?" Usagi asked with surprising determination.

The question momentarily shook the esteemed doctor's otherwise calm demeanor, but she quickly realized Usagi's intentions with the question. "Absolutely, Usagi-san," she replied with equal resolve.

"Are you _sure_?" Usagi asked even more steadfastly as she crept closer to the elder brunette. Saeko nodded and responded once more with the same word in a manner that unambiguously communicated her dedication. An almost imperceptible smile came to Usagi's face as she returned to sit next to her mother, feeling satisfied with the answer.

"What plan is this?" Ikuko asked with honest confusion.

Saeko turned her eyes to the perplexed woman and sighed. "I guess now is as good a time as ever to reveal the plan," she said.

For the next few minutes, Saeko calmly and expertly explained the details of the plan she told Usagi earlier that morning. There were smatterings of "_oohs_" and "_aahs_" and more than enough praise from Ikuko and exclamations of awe from Shingo during the impromptu presentation. The doctor also took the time to divulge a few more details that she had yet to share with Usagi.

"So, obviously, we will have to transfer you two and Kenji to a hospital in Kyoto so you all can continue your care," Saeko said with only a hint of apprehension evident in her voice. "For that to happen under normal circumstances, this hospital will have to notify the receiving hospital that they are going to transfer some patients and that they should be prepared to receive them. Naturally, the receiving hospital will want to know who is being sent their way and what injuries they have so they can better anticipate the type of care to give them."

"So, what you're saying in effect is that all the hard work you did to put your plan together could be destroyed if the hospital has to transfer them?" Usagi asked anxiously.

"Easily," Saeko replied. Her muscles reflexively began to tense as she laid out her plan to overcome that hurdle. "But, there is a procedure by which patients can be moved secretly," she added somewhat nervously. "It's the method used by the police and other agencies at times to transfer certain people without revealing when the transfer is occurring or where they were transferred."

"Okay… so why not just use that?" Usagi asked innocently.

"That's exactly what I'm going to do," Saeko replied, causing the blonde's eyes to light up. Saeko's response, conversely, was muted. "However, initiating that procedure requires a direct request from proper officials and going through all the proper channels. Given my position within the hospital, I could initiate the procedure for you all. I only risk my career and my freedom if they find out I started an illegitimate secret transfer," she said with palpable anxiety.

Everyone looked toward Saeko with concerned and sympathetic expressions on their faces, none more so than Usagi. She knew how significant of a risk the doctor was taking on her behalf and in response to the loss of her daughter and she greatly appreciated it.

Saeko took a deep breath and slowly exhaled it, calming herself and easing her nervousness. In those few seconds she remembered the reason she was willing to take that risk. "On the other hand, I risk so much more than that if I don't use that system, so it's an easy decision for me," she said while giving a wry smile. "I already lost my daughter to the Dark Kingdom, so whatever the authorities want to do to me pales by comparison. My main desire now is to make sure that nothing happens to you as well, Usagi-san, or to your family." She gazed warmly at the blonde before slowly passing her eyes over Ikuko and Shingo.

Usagi smiled faintly at Saeko but averted her eyes from the doctor's gentle stare. She knew in her heart the woman was utterly sincere in her words and meaning, but some things just were unavoidable despite all attempts to defy fate. After all, that was her reasoning behind ensuring that Saeko knew to follow through on the plan to move her family to Kyoto no matter what.

"Ugh…I think I need to use the restroom. I'll be back in a few minutes," Usagi said suddenly as her stomach began to upset her and her eyes seemed to glaze over. She took it as either another omen of some terrible future event or a sign she may have overindulged on the pizza. In either case, she pushed herself up from the chair next to her mother's bed and quickly walked to the door.

"Okay, but be careful, dear," Ikuko said in a calm voice but with evident concern.

Usagi turned around and looked at them with eerily calm eyes. "Don't worry, mama. I'll be fine," she said as resolutely as possible. She reached into her handbag and pulled out her cell phone, both of which were newly acquired that morning. "I'll call if anything were to happen," she added before slipping the phone back into her bag, pulling the door open and swiftly exiting into the busy hallway.

—|1|2|3|4|**5**|6|—

A young female nurse strolled down the second floor hall decked in light pink scrubs and holding a clipboard closely to her chest. Her straight, jet-black hair flowed around her narrow face and fell down to the middle of her back. Her dark-brown eyes swept from side to side, occasionally peeking through the windows of the patient's rooms, searching for something but frequently coming up short as she proceeded down the hall to the main bank of elevators. Her red lips alternately were pulled into either a disappointed frown or a relieved smile. Nothing that resembled what she was seeking appeared on that floor, which annoyed her. Yet, she didn't look woefully out of place compared to any of the other nurses working the floor, despite her inexperience. After all, she had only been a nurse there for about ten minutes, unlike the person whose identity she had stolen.

This disguise was a definite change from Sazaratha's exotically beautiful blonde. As she stepped into the elevator and proceeded to ride it to the third floor, she silently reflected on how different she felt. There was no doubt that she loved the indigo-eyed mask, but for this mission she absolutely needed to make sure she fit in. It was unfortunate for poor Katase that she was the one chosen for the job, but the nurse was on break and while taking a short jaunt outside stumbled into the formerly blond being with the confused face and innocent question. And just like the poor blonde who at one time in history fell victim to the wiles of the enigmatic creature who took a peculiar liking to her, Katase's unabashed willingness to assist a stranger led to her demise.

The elevator door slid open to reveal the third floor and Sazaratha, both preceded and followed by a few other members of the hospital staff, patients, and various guests, spilled out of the cramped, metal-lined box and into the hallway. She was willing to be patient in her hunt for the princess, but not too patient as some of the people there recognized "Katase" and were going to be suspicious of her randomly walking the halls instead of working her shift. She knew the former woman had a thirty-minute long respite, so that didn't leave her much time, but she was efficient if nothing else.

She felt an unexpected surge of disgustingly warm energy swell behind her and instinctively turned on her heel. At that second her eyes widened as a young blonde with surprisingly familiar twin pigtails crowned by large odangos raced down the hall in the direction of the restrooms. The energy signature precisely matched that from the girl she had knocked to the ground earlier that morning. The hair was different, but everything else was identical. She gasped when the connection formed in her mind.

"That _was_ the princess I ran into earlier," Sazaratha thought, at first with shock although that emotion was quickly replaced by anger. "Of _course_ that was the princess. The only reason the aura didn't match that from what Kunzite gave me is because he's an absolute freaking _idiot_. If I had reliable information I would have captured her much earlier."

Her eyes soon narrowed as she slowly marched in the direction of the restrooms. The princess definitely was there. All she needed to do was to alert Kunzite, and come up with a plan for making sure the princess did not escape again. She had no intentions to merely stalk her prey.

—|1|2|3|4|5|**6**|—

Usagi examined the pale-faced girl that sullenly stared back at her in the mirror. Those normally bright sapphire-blue eyes, which during moments of elation would have been absolutely wide and dazzling, instead were almost at their dimmest. They were so dark because the mind behind them held a secret that the owner of that mind desperately tried to conceal from the few people for whom she truly cared. The harsh realities of the future she knew would occur clashed with the utmost love and concern her family and the doctor had for her, and the result made her physically sick. That was why she was standing before one of the many sinks and the long slab of reflective glass in the hospital's restroom suffering through alternating emotions of anxiety and depression and fear.

She placed her hands beneath the faucet, activating the proximity sensor and causing the lukewarm water to flow into her waiting cupped palms. The splash of the water against her lowered face brought to her a small bit of relief. Her fear slowly began to melt away from her as she brought another handful of cool water to her face. Why was she afraid? After all, she had been through quite a lot of recent horrors in her brief life and had survived every one of them. No, she was not fearful of what would happen to her, but of what could happen to _them_. They were concerned for her after she revealed the contents of her premonition to them, but she knew they were the ones truly in danger. Her visions could not become reality. She would do everything in her power to prevent that from happening. Otherwise, all she had ever fought for would be lost.

Yes, Usagi essentially was the reincarnated princess of a long-lost kingdom called the Silver Millennium, a kingdom that was destroyed by the hideous creatures and pure evil of the combined forces Beryl and Metalia. It was true that those same forces returned with her resurrection as Sailor Moon and the slow realization that she was Serenity. At first, she fought against their malevolent schemes and their comparatively weak youmas only because it was the duty that was forced upon her. However, she always had the desire to not be required to fight and to live the normal life she had before becoming a senshi. She gradually came to realize the true importance of why she was fighting. Yet, there was still that tiny voice within her that wished it would all just go away, one that hoped she could once again be a teenager without the burden of saving the world. Why not, given that there were others who also battled that evil, and at the time they undoubtedly were far better than her at the job? Ultimately, although through no decision of her own, she had her opportunity to live the normal life, and despite the depressing circumstances by which it arrived, she wholeheartedly grabbed onto that chance. But, it proved to be transient, as at the exact same time she realized at a more personal level why she fought. It wasn't merely to save the world, which was important but at the same time an amorphous concept. It was to save the people she held most dear to her. By attacking her family, the Dark Kingdom reminded her of how much she truly valued her family and her closest friends. She knew she would do anything to protect them, even if it meant risking her own life. Thus, Saeko's words contained bitter unintended irony as the people she intended to save were equally dedicated to defending her. Such a quandary could only end in massive disappointment and sadness.

She splashed her face yet again. Water streamed down her mottled blond bangs and dripped into the sink. A small, sardonic grin came to her face as she reflected on her recent visions and those she had once before. She was painfully aware of her unique ability to occasionally witness horrific events in her future and of the haunting accuracy of her prognostication. The things she had seen never failed to come to fruition before. Thus her smile as she realized one tiny detail that she failed to appreciate during her panic. Yes, everything she had seen within her visions had come true, to a point. Otherwise, she would not have been standing in the hospital's restroom, worrying herself to the point of illness. Her smile widened. It meant that some of the images might occur, but others might not. That kind of ambiguity could have further frightened her, but instead it gave her hope, hope in her ability to prevent the worst of her visions from occurring. Hope that, no matter what happened to her, _they_ might be saved. Her renewed optimism rejuvenated her and reignited the shine in her eyes. She would be strong as she walked toward whatever fate had in store for her, as fate had been wrong once before. She dried her face and hair with a handful of soft paper towels before pulling open the restroom door and emerging into the hallway.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw the two people with whom she had longed to meet and talk since she first encountered them the previous night. Haruka and Michiru were walking, hand in hand, toward the bank of elevators. Usagi could feel her heart flutter at the mere sight of Haruka. A small pang of disappointment coursed through her with the knowledge that the two solidly were a couple and her chance in having Haruka as her own was absurdly low, but she ignored it. Instead she felt ecstatic that Michiru was correct after all. She started to run toward the pair but was halted by a hand that suddenly grasped her upper arm. That arm was connected to an extremely dark presence. She whipped around and stared into the sinister grin of a dark-haired nurse in pink scrubs.

"I'm so happy I finally found you, _Princess_," the nurse wryly said as her smirk enlarged.

Usagi gasped when she heard the emphatic last word. She tried to pull her arm from the vice-like grip with which the nurse—Sazaratha—held her, but discovered she lacked the strength to escape. However, she was not about to be captured meekly. Instead, she turned a defiant and unwavering glare toward her captor's dark-brown eyes.

"I know you're not a nurse, so who are you?" Usagi asked determinedly, yet in whispered tones so that only the nurse could hear her.

"Heh. You'll figure out in due time, but right now it doesn't matter," Sazaratha replied forcefully. She slowly raised her other hand and revealed the small black crystal held within. "You may not know what this is," she said with a sneer, "but I'm sure you'll absolutely recognize it when I show you what it does."

Usagi needed no explanation about the capabilities of the artifact held in Sazaratha's right hand. She instinctively knew it was the object Zoisite must have used to kill her dear friend, and she deduced that the fake nurse was threatening her with the same item.

"That's the stone used to kill Ami," Usagi whispered.

"Well, you're a quick learner," Sazaratha said sarcastically. "Yes, that's exactly what it is, and if you don't want me to use it on you then I suggest coming with me."

Usagi's eyes darted around. She didn't care about being taken by the unknown agent she assumed worked for the Dark Kingdom. What she wanted was to ensure was that she was nowhere close to the patient's room her family and Saeko were. If anything were to happen to her, it would occur as far away from them as possible. That much, she would do her best to guarantee.

"Where do you think you're taking me?" Usagi steadfastly asked even as her arm muscles relaxed.

"Someplace private where we can deal with you better," Sazaratha replied. She spun the blonde so that they both faced the bank of elevators and wrapped her left arm around Usagi's waist as if she were carefully leading the girl down the hall. Indeed she was, but not so carefully as her other hand firmly held the crystal against the side of Usagi's abdomen. "Now, let's walk. And you'd better not try anything funny, or else," she said threateningly while lightly prodding Usagi's side with the sharpened point of the crystal.

Usagi nodded and let the painfully evil captor lead her. They took the elevator down to the ground floor and walked out of the hospital using the rear entrance normally used by ambulance crews to rush patients into the emergency room. Although there were some curious glances and second looks, none of the passersby suspected a thing. It was all too terribly easy for the supposed nurse to whisk a young girl out of the building under everyone's noses.

Sazaratha continued to march the princess farther and farther away from the large concrete and glass edifice. Usagi didn't mind the walk. Every step she took away from the building was another step of distance between the enemy and her precious family and Saeko. As the blocks progressed and the hospital faded further and further into the background, she pieced together in her mind a plan to fight back against her captor. She knew she no longer held the enhanced strength and magical power of Sailor Moon, but she was unsure whether the dark entity that was leading her to some unknown destination also was aware of her lack of senshi capabilities. Not that it would have mattered, as the truth would have become painfully obvious once an actual battle erupted. She did have the power of Princess Serenity at her disposal, but how much genuine assistance could her other form provide in the absence of the Silver Crystal? That, of course, assumed she could find a secure enough place to hide for the minute or so required to transform. Nevertheless, she was going to be defiant and resist their attempt to haul her to the Dark Kingdom as well as she could, either as the princess or as a normal girl.

In all of her scheming, she lost track of the number of city blocks she had traversed while being closely escorted by Sazaratha. She figured it had to have been at least twenty and climbing. She felt strange as they continued to walk, anonymous within the stream of people flowing around them. Twenty blocks of walking should have been nothing, especially with her youth and her immense stamina, but, inexplicably, she felt extremely lightheaded. Doing such acts as lifting her feet to move one in front of the other or even breathing became strenuous chores. Yet she soldiered on, more than willing to keep her attacker away from her loved ones while continuing to contemplate within her mind her next course of action.

A sharp tug on her left arm conveyed to her that Sazaratha wanted the pair to stop walking along the sidewalk and instead proceed through the gate next to them. It was the entrance to a construction area, one that strangely was devoid of any workers. It might have been the simple case that the construction personnel had the Saturday free, or a more complex and disheartening probability of the firm being unable to continue construction due to financial woes. Either way, the unfinished building ensured a modicum of privacy for the pair and whatever conflict that would ensue. The black-haired woman impatiently followed the laboring younger blonde, harshly ushering—at times physically shoving—the girl up a set of bare concrete stairs to the sixth floor of the currently ten-story structure. Signs of ongoing construction were evident everywhere, although none were more glaring than the exposed steel beams supporting the unfinished walls. The other obvious sign was how dark it was within the building as there was no electricity and thus no lamps to illuminate the rooms. Only the occasional ray of sunshine that managed to pierce through the enlarging grey clouds provided the light necessary to navigate without tripping on random equipment and building materials that were scattered about. Sazaratha, that evil fake nurse, ultimately led Usagi into a room that seemed to her just slightly darker than the others.

"Now, just stay here and don't even _think_ about running," Sazaratha commanded.

Running was the last thing on Usagi's mind as, by that point, she barely could even stand upright. She collapsed to her knees and started breathing even more heavily than before. Her entire body felt dangerously weak, as if some unknown force had drained her of all her energy and left a hollow being in its wake.

"_Why am I suddenly so tired?"_ she asked herself as she struggled to lift her head. _"I can't even try to fight back the way I planned."_

Her eyes wandered about the austere room, looking for any object she potentially could use to defend herself. It might have been her destiny to be captured, but she had no plans to go without a fight. However, as was often the case for life in general, and more often in her recent personal existence, the best laid plans had a knack for going awry. There were many so objects—some of them heavy, others painfully sharp, all of them capable of doing damage—she could have utilized if she weren't so damned weak. Failing to find anything she could employ as a crude weapon in her enervated state, she sighed in dejection. Maybe she couldn't avoid fate after all. Her eyes fell to the depressingly grey concrete floor and the white and light-purple handbag resting at her side.

"_Wait… that's right!"_ she thought as her lethargic eyes captured the contrast of the light-colored bag against the floor and her mind remembered the crucial object it held. She wondered how she managed to keep the bag in her possession or why her captor didn't make her toss it somewhere.

Sazaratha was not concerned with any of her target's antics as she readied her telepathic link with Kunzite. Once again she began to emit a faint yellow glow as she appeared within the elder Shitennou general's thoughts.

"_What is it this time, Sazaratha?"_ Kunzite asked impatiently.

"_I have the princess,"_ Sazaratha curtly replied.

His eyes widened with delight as he heard the news. _"Oh? So where is she?"_

"_A random construction site in the middle of Roppongi,"_ she replied flatly. She rolled her eyes and sighed irritably. _"Why are you asking me such a stupid question? You already know how to find me, and I'm obviously with her. So just get your ass here already!"_

"_How the hell is she _with_ you?"_ he responded with surprise. He promptly recalled his last encounter with the princess and the beating he received by her hands. Sazaratha was special, but she wasn't that much stronger than him and couldn't possibly have managed to capture the princess by herself, he reasoned. Furthermore, his instructions to her were to locate the princess and track her, not to capture her and shuttle her to random sections of the city.

"_It seemed she went with me willingly,"_ she replied smugly.

"_Have you thought about whether you're being tricked? After all, the princess is quite a wily girl."_

"_Maybe so, but it doesn't look like she's doing much of anything right now."_ She glanced over her shoulder at the hunched girl practically lying motionless on the concrete floor and chuckled audibly. _"Anyway, there is not much time so just get over here already."_

"_Fine,"_ he muttered before closing the link.

A few seconds later, the tall, grey-suited general materialized next to the pink-adorned Sazaratha with a wisp of black smoke. His lips were pulled into an enormous smile at the sight of Usagi crouched on the hard, cold floor and apparently oblivious to the presence of yet another enemy. Usagi reflexively cringed as the amount of dark energy in her vicinity essentially doubled and steadily increased as she heard the clicking of heels against the hard concrete. She couldn't see who it was, but she sick feeling at the pit of her stomach brought about by his distinctive evil energy left her no doubt in her mind that Kunzite was back for her. The footsteps halted a few feet from her nearly prone figure.

"This is the princess?" Kunzite asked with sincere confusion. "It doesn't feel like her. Her aura is completely different from what I remember."

"I guess that's why it took me so long to find her even though I had literally run into her earlier," Sazaratha replied. "If I wasn't so reliant on your information about her energy signatures, I would have found her much sooner, you know."

"Don't blame _me_," he said defensively. "She's clearly changed since the last time I had seen her." He paused while he stared at the seemingly pathetic figure of the crouched girl. "Anyway, how is it that she's so incapacitated?"

"Oh, I just used one of Zoisite's sapping stones to keep her from doing anything silly," she replied nonchalantly.

He turned sharply and glared at her in disgust, his normally blue-grey eyes transformed into fierce red orbs. "_You… did… WHAT_?" he shouted with intense fury. "You do know we want her _alive_, right? How long has she been exposed to the stone?"

She raised a hand and casually shifted some of the jet-black hair that had fallen over her face behind an ear. "About thirty minutes," she replied calmly while ignoring his fiery glare.

"_Thirty minutes?_ How is it that you haven't killed her yet with the stone being so close for so long?" he asked crossly. He knew that thirty minutes was enough to send Ami to her demise, so he deduced that Usagi's continued survival had to arise from her identity as the princess.

"Don't worry. It's not like I don't know how the damned stone works," she retorted, annoyed at his continued questioning of her methods.

"You'd better," he replied harshly. He slowly walked around to the front of Usagi, ever wary of whatever surprises she might have had ready for her. His eyes widened when he saw that the girl, hunched over as she was, was far from incapacitated.

"_Uh-oh,"_ Usagi thought as she realized Kunzite was standing right over her and clearly saw what she had been doing. He was not at all pleased by the discovery.

While Sazaratha was conversing with Kunzite over the telepathic link, Usagi had silently removed her cell phone from her hand bag. Obviously, speaking to anyone with it was out of the question, but she could easily send a text message without drawing attention to herself. The number to Saeko's cell phone was already entered into the contacts list, which was a blessing as she wouldn't have been able to recall the number in such a stressful situation. She flipped open the phone with great care exerted to not alert the mysterious enemy to her actions and typed her singular message:

_Sorry, I can't go to your party after all. Save some cake for me?_

She sent the cryptic message with the expectation that it's receipt would have startled and depressed the doctor as well as her mother and little brother. It absolutely did, but it wasn't a complete shock to them given her explanation of her foreboding visions. About a minute later she received an unexpected reply from Saeko:

_Sad to hear you can't come. I will definitely save a very large piece for you._

Usagi smiled upon reading the reply. Saeko was as obscure in her response as she had been in her original message. Obviously, the doctor had immediately comprehended that the message was sent in secret and under duress. A less ambiguous text would have exposed their meticulously crafted plan to the enemy and put Usagi's family at severe risk of capture, or worse. So, when Kunzite reached down and angrily ripped the phone from her hand, she knew he would not have been able to decipher exactly what she was doing.

"Who were you communicating with?" the general asked irately as he stared at the glowing screen.

"No-nobody," Usagi stuttered as she struggled to speak. Although she was pleased to learn from the overheard conversation how she suddenly became so weak, the knowledge didn't help her regain her energy.

"Clearly that is not true. I will find out who you called and they will pay for their interference," he said ominously.

Usagi momentarily winced but otherwise showed no emotion while Sazaratha smirked with great amusement. He pushed a few buttons on the phone and soon found the name of the person to whom Usagi sent the message. Kunzite scrunched his nose as a mystified expression encroached upon his face.

"Naoko Kobayashi? Who is that?" he asked with a demanding tone.

"My great-grandmother," Usagi replied with a defiant whisper. She would have smiled but it would have given away her satisfaction that the trick worked and the repercussions would have been severe. Indeed, she did have Saeko's number added to the contacts list in her cell phone, but it was not under the doctor's name. Instead, she used the name of her great-grandmother, a person Kunzite could not kill in revenge because she was already dead.

Angered, Kunzite threw the phone against the concrete floor, smashing the screen and forcefully detaching the screen casing and battery from the body of the device. "It doesn't matter anymore," he grumbled.

Kunzite then reached down and tentatively grabbed Usagi by her shirt to lift her up from the ground. He eyed her cautiously, prepared for any attempt by her to strike back at him, but there was no further movement from the girl. Sazaratha walked up to the other size of Usagi and grabbed her around the waist to steady her. The unnecessarily tight grip caused the blonde to wince once again, the pain enhanced by the extremely close proximity of Sazaratha's unique negative energy.

"Now, my dear princess, you will know that you should have given up much sooner," Kunzite whispered menacingly into Usagi's ear as he placed his other hand atop her head.

Usagi heard a deafeningly loud roar and felt a strong gust of wind blow around her as everything suddenly was obscured by the intense gold light that Kunzite and Sazaratha emitted. She tilted her head downward and saw that her own body was emitting a similarly bright glow. A sharp pain, one far more debilitating than what the revolting woman inflicted on her by grabbing her waist, shot through every last part of her body. She tried to move her arms in a reflexive gesture to comfort herself but none of the muscles in her body would respond to her commands. Soon, the world around her seemed to become ripped apart, as if the fabric of reality was being shredded and replaced by nothing but inky black darkness. Not even their golden radiance could permeate the darkness around her. She blinked, thinking maybe her eyes were sealed shut but they were wide open. They were open and she could see nothing at all. Nor could she feel Sazaratha's grasp of her waist or Kunzite's gloved hand tousling the hair on her head. It did not take her long to find out why. Not only was she in complete darkness, but she was completely alone.

The first scene of her horrifying visions had come true after all.


	29. Resurgence of the Planets of Ice

**Chapter 29: Resurgence of the Planets of Ice**

"Okay, so… What do we do now?" Rei asked in a low whisper as she stared at her leader with pleading eyes.

"I have no idea, Rei-chan. I truly don't," Minako answered softly. A small, confused sigh pushed through and escaped her lips as she shoved her empty glass to the middle of the table and rested her head on the smooth, light-pink surface.

Her palpable anxiety was fully understood and shared by her tablemates. Their immediate goal was to somehow retrieve the Silver Crystal from the transformation brooch they had seized from Usagi, but all of their attempts to do so had ended in complete failure. They contemplated using their magical attacks to break open the incredibly solid brooch. Venus's Rolling Heart Vibration might have had far more force behind it than a sledgehammer, but the fact that the sledgehammer didn't even dent the object or leave the tiniest scratch on its gleaming surface tempered their expectations. However, the group's concerns went far beyond what to do with the brooch. Even if they somehow—miraculously—managed to obtain the Silver Crystal, there was the significant and hitherto unsolved issue of actually locating the princess. Without her, there was no point to any of their previous actions. The Dark Kingdom had far more information about the whereabouts of their ruler than any of their shrinking number possessed. That was an untenable situation that they had no clue how to correct, especially without the brilliant mind of Ami to help them.

"How did she know?" Makoto asked randomly, referencing the improbable fact that Ami's mother knew her child had died before any of them relayed to her the sad news.

"Maybe she could just feel her absence," Minako suggested with a slight shrug of her shoulders. "I hear that some mothers have a sort of sixth sense like that, where they can feel things happening with their children without knowing exactly what it is."

"I doubt it. That sort of psychic power is rare," Rei said authoritatively with an annoyed glare pointed at the blonde.

"You're not the only psychic around, Rei-chan," Minako replied with only the slightest hint of a wry smile on her lips. "Besides, we're not talking about anything approaching your powers. Just feelings."

"I guess…" Rei said in resignation as she pointed her eyes down at the table. "But it still doesn't explain why she was so cold toward us."

"Maybe she was just stressed out from all the grieving," Makoto offered. She dared to point her eyes up from the table and make fleeting glances at her two comrades. "She had figured out her daughter had died—and I can't think of much worse things than losing your family—and we come and remind her of that very traumatic thing." She pointed her eyes back down at the table and sighed deeply.

"You would think, though, that she would find some comfort in having Ami's friends there, right?" Rei asked.

"Yeah…" Minako said with her voice trailing away. She shook her head and slowly pushed herself up from the seat. "Anyway, I think we should get back to the shrine and try to think about what we're going to do next."

The other two girls solemnly nodded and joined their leader in pushing themselves up from the cushioned seats and onto their feet. The miserable group slowly walked down the steps from Crown Fruit Parlor into Crown Arcade. They shuffled between the game machines and the multitude of young customers and headed for the door. Minako, being the first in line of the train of bemused senshi, opened the door and almost collided headlong into a much taller man with dark hair entering through the same door. The other two girls failed to notice the blonde's abrupt halt and crashed into the back of her, sending the convoy of girls careening into the man. All three of them immediately climbed to their feet and apologetically offered to help the unknown gentleman stand upright. Only then did they realize who it was they bowled over.

"I'm so sorry for knocking you over, mis—Mamoru-san!" Minako exclaimed when she recognized his black hair and dark-blue eyes.

"Mamoru-san, um… how are you, uh, doing this afternoon?" Rei asked innocently. The question came out awkwardly as she did not know whether or not he was aware of Ami's fate.

Mamoru turned his sullen eyes toward their violet counterparts that gazed at the man with a combination of consternation and surprise. He had wanted to talk with the girls ever since witnessing the unexpected and, in his mind, deplorable events that occurred when he arrived at the park after Ami's death. The timely collision gave him an opportunity to exactly that.

"Minako-san, Makoto-san, Rei-san," Mamoru started in a soft voice, "could you come to my apartment with me so we can talk? I'm fairly sure you know what it's about."

All three girls nodded in unison in response to Mamoru's request. They had pretty much nothing but time, so it was no hassle for them to speak with the boyfriend of their departed comrade. Furthermore, he might have had insight into how to access the crystal steadfastly locked within Usagi's transformation brooch. None of the girls imagined that having the conversation would hurt. So, they waited for Mamoru as he quickly swept through the arcade, giving a quick nod and wave to Motoki, before walking back to the entrance to lead the three senshi to his apartment.

—|1|**2**|3|4|5|6|—

She urged her feet to move as quickly as they possibly could the moment her garnet eyes spotted the unmistakable golden blond pigtails that only could have belonged to one individual. For some reason unknown to her, the young girl had allowed herself to be escorted by the older woman adorned in pink scrubs and wearing jet-black hair. The moment she saw the pair march down the street, away from the hospital where the girl's family was ensconced, she knew something had gone very, very wrong. She could see, and sense, that the woman dressed as a nurse clearly was not either a nurse or a human, and that the blonde knew the exact same thing. Thus, she turned on her heels and began her pursuit of the pair, being careful to maintain her distance from the two while keeping them well within her sight.

Her level of concern increased with each step she took away from Juuban Second General Hospital. Soon she was outside of Juuban district, far away from where she knew her target and, more importantly, her ward belonged.

"_Why on Earth are they traveling so far?"_ she pondered as she pushed herself around a pair of pedestrians walking dead in her path.

The distance traversed slowly increased, at least half of a mile covered as the blonde and the raven walked an almost-circuitous route through the northern section of Roppongi. Along the way, she could tell that the girl was struggling to maintain her pace or even properly move her legs. Her imposing captor almost had to hold the younger one upright in order to force her to their ultimate destination. At no time during their march did any of the passersby seem to have a clue what was happening right around them. That ignorance was both a hindrance and an advantage to her.

The pair turned a corner to the right, and a few seconds later she followed suit, carefully trailing them by about twenty or thirty feet. Her distance was calculated just so, ensuring that she could feel the lovely, warm radiance of the blonde and the cold, nauseating darkness of the woman who forcefully escorted her without giving away her own position. She blended as best as she could into the crowd of people who were sight-seeing or shopping or just walking about on the cool and cloudy afternoon. However, just like the targets she tracked, she was not like any of the bystanders. She exuded her own energy that, despite not being as intense as that emitted by either being she followed, was powerful and a sure beacon of her presence. If she strayed too close to either of them, she would instantly reveal herself and her intentions and put the girl at tremendous risk.

Suddenly, the two came to a stop next to the fence bordering the construction site of what would eventually become a high-rise apartment complex. At that time, it extended ten stories into the sky. She knew that, once the construction firm settled its legal woes and secured new funding some fifteen months later, the edifice would eventually become a twenty-floor structure. She knew other details of the building's troubled future, but she put that to the back of her mind as she stopped at the intersection, averted her gaze so that she wouldn't inadvertently attract attention, and concentrated on the energy signatures from the two. The moment they proceeded through the gate and onto the grounds of the construction site, she walked down the street and to the gate. She wondered how no one could be concerned or even interested at the sight of a young girl and woman entering the restricted grounds of a construction zone. However, if the pair attracted nobody's attention, then she knew she would be just as anonymous. She gradually pushed open the gate and slinked silently off of the pavement and onto the rough dirt.

From that point, her task of tracking them became more difficult as she witnessed the two enter the building. As long as she was on the same plane as them, she could easily keep an eye on them and feel their unconsciously emitted energy. Once she entered the building, the only thing she could easily sense would be their energy, and even then it would be muted by the thick concrete floors of the building. If she moved too quickly and rashly, she risked stumbling too close to the pair and being detected by the evil being she determined to be an agent of the Dark Kingdom. Doing so would cause her to fail miserably at her vital mission, and the mysterious senshi of time was unaccustomed to such blatant failure. As much as a part of her desperately wished to remain close to her princess, she knew better than to risk completion of her primary assignment because of such petty desires.

She slowly walked through the front entrance of the incomplete building. With every footstep she took beyond the glass doorway, she clearly heard the unambiguous reverberation of her heels against hard concrete. That was untenable and unnecessarily risky. She reached down and deftly slipped her shoes off her feet. The completion of her mission far outweighed personal comfort, and, in any case, whatever injuries she sustained by accidentally stepping on the scattered bits of building materials and equipment would heal quickly. She stealthily proceeded up the stairs, slowly feeling around each level for any trace of her princess and her captor.

When she reached the sixth floor she felt an intense amount of dark energy, far greater than what she had discerned from the lone creature she pursued for so long and immediately knew that another enemy was present. She closed her eyes and concentrated on disambiguating the mixture of negative energies in order to identify the other opponent her princess had to encounter. However, loud shouting that permeated the room and filtered down the hallway obviated the need for her to struggle with such a task and readily provided to her the answer. It was the surprised exclamations of Kunzite, and by his words he clearly was displeased at his purported associate and not the girl. She opened her eyes and crept closer to the origin of the angry yell, hugging the wall and straining to feel the positive radiance from her princess. A loud crash of some object being smashed hard against concrete momentarily stunned and froze her, but she soon recovered and pushed closer to the room she knew her princess and the two beings threatening her occupied.

A bright golden light burst through the open door of the room and flooded the hallway. It was soon followed by the intense roar of a strong, swirling wind that rumbled down the corridor. All pretenses of subtlety and secrecy went out the window the moment she saw the blast of light, and she sprinted as quickly as she could to the door. The instant she reached the threshold of the room, but before she could turn her eyes to peer into the unexpected darkness, the light dissipated and the wind died down. No longer could she feel the precious warmth of her princess or the frightening chill of Kunzite and the mysterious woman. Instead, there was utter silence and complete emptiness within the room, and she immediately knew that her princess no longer was within her reach and was far from safety. She also knew that what occurred to the teenage girl was inevitable and could not have been prevented despite her attempts to closely watch over the blonde.

"It seems that this part of her fate was unavoidable after all," she mused sadly as she turned and rushed out of the building.

Her identity as the enigmatic senshi responsible for monitoring and protecting the flow of time enabled her to learn much about the future of the planet and its inhabitants. That was not to say that she had outright knowledge of every possible event that could occur to every individual. For some things, like the fate of the apartment complex she hurriedly exited, her knowledge was absolute, but that was a rarity. More often, it was of a game of probabilities, where certain events had a higher chance of occurrence than others, but those inevitably were linked to the details of past incidents. That often led to sudden shifts in the predicted futures of people and places, and it were those shifts that kept her on her toes and interested in her duty.

However, there were the ambiguous cases that especially strained her capabilities to foresee the future. The principal example was that of her leader and princess, for whom she could not predict a single event for much of the girl's existence. When she led the spirit of Queen Serenity to her daughter, there was no single future event that held a higher prospect of occurrence relative to any of the others. Indubitably, that gave the individual great power over her fate, but it also meant that everything else was dependent upon the choices of that person. And, when that person was Princess Serenity, the outcomes of her decisions held tremendous consequences.

Soon after the final reunion between mother and daughter, she began to observe one uniform destiny for the young princess. There remained enormous ambiguity about her immediate future, which prevented her from learning ahead of time the resolution of the conflict between the girl and what ultimately would become her former friends. It also inhibited her ability to know what would befall the other senshi, as the girls inexorably were linked to one another at such a profound level that none of them would understand for a long time. Furthermore, there was great doubt about the future of the princess after the singular predicted event. However, every sign she could observe from every method of prediction available to her pointed to the incident that began with the capture and disappearance of the princess.

She bolted through the gate and sprinted down the street to the corner, low-heeled shoes still in one hand. Her free hand reached out to hail the first vacant taxi she could find. The silver-painted Crown Comfort sedan pulled over to the side of the street and she reached for the door handle before the vehicle could come to a complete stop. The tall woman leaped into the rear seat, slammed the door shut, and directed the driver to proceed to Juuban Second General Hospital without delay. The driver complied and accelerated away from the street corner. She slumped into the soft cushions of the expansive rear bench seat, her long dark-green hair falling about her distressed face, and sighed deeply. Her behavior was far from the stoic, mysterious being she presented to others, but this was a special situation, and the normally calm and unshakable Setsuna Meiou would have to wait for another time.

—|1|2|**3**|4|5|6|—

Saeko slowly snapped her cell phone shut and slid it into her sweater pocket. About a minute prior she had received a brief text message from Usagi. Anyone else reading the message would have assumed the doctor was holding some sort of celebration to which the young girl unfortunately could not attend. Celebrating, however, was far from the first thing on the woman's mind, and she inherently recognized the message was actually a code, likely typed and sent under duress. The intent of the message was unmistakable: she was to immediately enact the plan they had developed for secretly spiriting Usagi's family out of the hospital. Despite agreeing to follow the wishes of the young girl whose family she left in the doctor's care, Saeko could not help but feel sick about the series of events. She wasn't alone with the sentiment.

"So, does that mean Usagi's…?" Shingo asked hesitantly, tears forming at the base of his eyes. The normally cocky boy could not fathom the possibility that he might never again see his sister.

"I don't know," Saeko replied with uncertainty in her voice. "I have no idea what happened to her… or what will happen to her."

"The only thing we can do now is believe in Usagi. Believe in her and that everything will be alright," Ikuko said with sagacity and calmness although she was just as anxious as everyone else in the room.

Saeko gradually released a deep breath as she attempted to maintain what little composure she had. Even though Usagi was not her daughter, she was Ami's best friend and first true friend, and she did not want to lose another girl for whom she cared deeply. Yet, she also made a promise to Usagi that, no matter what, she would carry out the plan. Breaking promises was not in her character. So it was no surprise when she stood up from the chair and walked slowly, yet steadily and with great determination, to Ikuko's bedside.

"I believe in your daughter," Saeko said resolutely as she steadfastly gazed at Ikuko with warm auburn eyes. She paused momentarily before continuing. "I have the special transfer forms in my office. It doesn't take very long to complete them. I will need the signatures of the hospital's chief physician and other, um… bureaucrats, but I think I can easily get around that," she said with a mischievous smile at the end.

"Normally I would question your ethics and warn you that you're not being a very good example for my son, but given the precarious situation I think I'll give you a pass this time," Ikuko said with a similarly wry smile.

Saeko nodded and gave a wink at Ikuko and Shingo before leaving the room and hurrying to her office to fill out the official documents with all the required and correct information and signatures—even the sections which she could not legitimately complete.

—|1|2|3|**4**|5|6|—

"Did you just feel something strange?" Michiru asked innocently as she turned into the elevator, her fingers intertwined with Haruka's.

"What, with Koneko-chan?" Haruka answered playfully, knowing the pet name she created for Usagi would agitate her lover. The momentary glare from Michiru informed her she was successful and she chuckled for a few seconds. However, as the cab of the elevator slowly ascended, she turned very serious. "Yes, actually, I did feel something different with Tsukino-san."

"She looked as if she was going to approach us before she started talking with that nurse," Michiru whispered pensively, her voice low enough so that only Haruka could hear her. "I don't know why, but whenever she's anywhere close to me I can feel this warm, tender energy."

Haruka nodded and her teal eyes narrowed. "I felt the same thing too. It's as though I'm drawn to her, but it's different from any attraction I've ever felt for anyone."

The metal elevator doors slowly opened when they reached the seventh floor of the hospital and the pair strode into the hallway. They were on the way to the patient's room where Haruka was held overnight for further examinations to collect their belongings and return home. A second examination that morning had satisfied the doctors of Haruka's good health following the crash that the blonde had described as minor. Given her profession as a racing driver and the inevitable crashes that she had endured as a novice in the sport, crashes that had occurred at much higher speeds, she felt that the doctors were being extraordinarily cautious. Cautious and annoying. She couldn't wait to leave, and neither could her Michiru. Yet, she felt compelled to wait a few more hours before departing the hospital for two reasons. The first was that she wanted to drive herself home—she was a driver and not a passenger, after all. Repairs on the minor damage her Skyline sustained wouldn't take very long, but in effect it did delay the pair through the afternoon. The other reason, one that was confusing and becoming increasingly so every minute, was that odd sensation she and Michiru felt immediately after encountering Usagi.

"What do you think we should do?" Haruka inquired as she retrieved a small bag that held the change of clothes that she had packed for a completely different purpose than a hospital stay.

"I don't know," Michiru admitted softly. "I don't know who or what she is, or why I'm so unusually concerned about her." She sighed as she bent down to lift the brown, rectangular case that held the only other thing she considered precious besides her Haruka. She then turned her cobalt-blue eyes to her partner's waiting gaze. "Something deep inside tells me that she's in trouble," she said ominously.

Haruka stood before Michiru with her brow furrowed in deep contemplation. "What kind of trouble, and what does it have to do with us?" she asked with a lowered pitch to her voice.

"I'm not sure, but I feel we somehow are able to help her," Michiru replied in a brooding whisper. She turned her eyes away from Haruka and through the window and into the darkening sky. "I think it's related to those visions that we both received when we first met her."

Haruka slowly nodded. They had discussed at length the strangeness of their introductions with the young blonde the previous night and could not figure out what any of the images that exploded onto their minds meant. Eventually, they set the issue aside and relaxed for the night, together as had always been the case when they realized their profound love for one another. However, the fleeting sight of the girl that afternoon reignited their curiosity and concerns and once again left them perplexed.

"Whatever it is, I don't think we can really do much for her until we see her again," Michiru said in the same contemplative tone.

Haruka's gaze lingered on the blank stare that Michiru pointed at the glass for a few seconds before she leisurely approached her turquoise-haired darling and put an arm around her waist. "If there's nothing we can do, then I think we shouldn't waste much time thinking about it," she whispered into Michiru's ear.

Michiru gently rested her head against the sandy-blond woman's shoulder. "You're right," she agreed mellifluously as she let herself fall closer into her love's embrace. She then looked up at her with a mischievous smile. "Now that you're being kicked out of here, you're free to buy me lunch."

"Hey, I'm the one who was 'injured!'" Haruka responded with a playful tone of faux complaint that further was belied by the resplendent smile that followed.

"I'll have no pity for the weak," Michiru replied with a slight pout as she lifted her head and gave Haruka a deft wink.

The blonde saw in those perfectly positioned lips before her the perfect invitation to have a romantic kiss and bent her head down to provide exactly that. Her eyes widened in surprise as her partner slipped away right before their lips could meet. The ever-graceful Michiru shook her head, pulled away from the looming pucker, pirouetted around Haruka's body in such a way that they ended up standing arm-in-arm, and stood on her toes with her lips near her companion's ear.

"Not until after lunch," she whispered before pulling away with a wide grin.

"You're the ultimate tease at times," Haruka replied with a defeated sigh as she walked with Michiru to the door, pulled it open, and smoothly led the pair into the bustling hallway.

"I know," was the sole response that preceded light giggling from the victorious turquoise-haired woman.

—|1|2|3|4|**5**|6|—

Saeko gazed at her handiwork with her mouth pulled into a bittersweet smile. She knew that, if Usagi somehow could resolve the whole conflict with the Dark Kingdom and they all could live in relative peace, her career as a doctor at that hospital would be ruined. Forging the signatures of her superiors on legal forms tended to do that to one's profession, after all. However, it also ensured that the covert transfer would begin that afternoon and that Usagi's parents and younger brother could be moved to a hospital in Kyoto without the risk of discovery. She had participated in a few such transfers and knew the protocol well enough to determine that few people would question the veracity of the signatures until after the move had been made. Furthermore, with her esteemed status and reputation as a stickler for the rules, it would be a shock that anyone would even second-guess her presumed authority. All she needed to do was to make a few phone calls to her counterparts at the receiving hospital and the process would be in motion.

She leaned back into her seat and sighed. A part of her pondered whether the effort would be fruitful as she had no idea of Usagi's condition. The girl she eagerly supported, the princess she desired to defend when nobody else but her family and she believed in her, was in the hands of the ruthless Dark Kingdom. For all she knew, the young blonde already might have met her demise. Yet she refused to accept such a thought, for she knew that Usagi possessed immense personal strength and would not allow the evil such an easy victory. The girl would do whatever she could to resist them, even in the absence of her transformation to Sailor Moon and despite whatever risks that entailed. Her defiance in sending the text message earlier that afternoon proved as much. With that mindset, Saeko hardened her determination, lifted the phone, and punched in the number of the office of the chief physician at Kyoto City Hospital to inform the requisite people to expect three new patients.

—|1|2|3|4|5|**6**|—

The silver taxi skidded to a halt at the main lobby entrance of the hospital. The frantic woman with dark-green hair and garnet eyes tossed a few 1000-yen notes at the driver and leaped out of the rear seat. She knew she overpaid for the trip by double, and she had a pretty good idea what the driver would do with the extra money, but she didn't care at that point about other people's debauchery. Her primary goal was to locate two women whose assistance she knew she required if there was any hope of preventing some of the more dire futures that might befall her princess. Fortunately, she knew exactly where to search for them.

Once Setsuna strolled through the automatically-opening sliding glass doors that brought her into the lobby, she reduced her pace and attempted to collect herself. Although time was of the essence, there was no reason to completely destroy any semblance of the personality her colleagues had grown to appreciate. Instead of appearing hurried, she adopted a calmer and yet more determined stride down the main hallway.

"Meiou-sensei, there are a few new patients for you," one of the nurses said while swiftly marching to catch up to the woman who, for all intents and purposes, was considered one of the better doctors at the hospital. They thought her young but full of potential. She handed Setsuna a few folders with patient health records bound within.

"Thank you, Sayaka-san," Setsuna replied while taking the folders from the brunette's hand.

This was one of the few times, incidents regarding the princess notwithstanding, where a person's future was all but impossible to predict. The reason was that it directly involved Setsuna, and while the senshi of time was reasonably good at determining event probabilities of others' lives, she had no clue about her own destiny. It was only proper that knowledge of her own future was denied to her as it prevented her from taking steps to change her fate that might inadvertently cause tremendous damage to the entire timeline. Her solemn duty was to monitor time and to ensure its proper flow, and she was expressly forbidden to alter the sequence of known events in the future or to prevent a certain predicted destiny from occurring by changing the past. However, in those situations where no clear outcome would ensue with a reasonably high probability, she had the authority to do what she felt would best suit her and support her other mission of protecting the princess.

"Who are they and what are their injuries?" Setsuna asked as she continued to walk down the hallway in the direction of the hospital's cafeteria.

"Male, age ten, fell from a skateboard and fractured his femur. X-rays are in the file," the nurse said in a rapid-fire style but also with calmness. "Female, twenty-five years old, second-degree burns along arms, first-degree burns on chest from coffee spill. Finally, male, forty-three, head contusion and back injuries from falling off a ladder but otherwise alert."

"I see…" Setsuna replied. She stopped right before she reached the entrance of the cafeteria. The nurse halted in kind. She opened the top folder and quickly flipped through the pages, then did the same thing with the other two folders. Her eyes pointed at the ceiling and a look of deep contemplation fell over her as she searched for a solution to the problem. At that specific time, a solution meant finding some way to avoid taking those patients, as the likelihood of her having the time to treat them was extraordinarily low.

"For the woman, I suggest having Tokatsu-sensei in the burn ward treat her, as he's much better at dealing with burn injuries," Setsuna said, drawing a curious stare from the nurse.

"You're refusing a case?" the nurse asked warily.

"I'm not refusing," Setsuna answered resolutely as she lowered her eyes to meet the nurse's hesitant light-brown counterparts. "I'm just making sure she has the best shot of a decent recovery. That means giving her case to someone with better expertise." The nurse nodded understandingly.

"Now, the other two patients are not so severe cases. The boy's leg should have been stabilized by now, and it's just a matter right now of properly setting the cast," Setsuna said firmly. "And the gentleman should have a CT scan done to check for potential brain injuries, if it hasn't been done already." She shuffled through the pages of that patient's folder once again. "It doesn't look like one has been done, so I strongly suggest sending him up to radiology for CT," she said in a stern voice.

"I'll have that done right away," the nurse said timidly while taking the two files that Setsuna pushed toward her. She started to scurry down the hall when she heard her name being called.

"Sayaka-san, could you get a nurse to set the cast for our young patient's leg?" Setsuna asked with less harshness in her tone. "I'm extremely busy right now and I'm looking for someone important, but I'll be by to check up on him a little later today." She then offered the third folder to the nurse.

"Certainly," the nurse said with a quick nod before jogging away.

Setsuna's shoulders dropped ever so slightly as she gradually released a relieved sigh. She looked at her watch and saw that it was not quite one o'clock in the afternoon. That meant the princess had been detained almost forty-five minutes ago and transported away from that construction site fifteen minutes ago. She pushed open the door to the cafeteria, walked to a solitary spot near the ordering line, and scanned the tables with narrowed eyes. There were several people occupying the tables as expected for the mid-afternoon lunchtime, but it didn't take her long to locate a certain elegant woman with wavy turquoise hair and her companion with short sandy-blond locks and masculine dress. She determinedly strode toward the pair's table and stood stoically in front of the pair, drawing their attention.

"Hello, I'm Doctor Setsuna Meiou," she said politely while bowing before them.

Michiru looked up at the tall woman and gave her a warm smile. "Hi, Meiou-sensei, it's very nice to meet you. I'm Michiru Kaiou, and this is Haruka Tenou," she said with a friendly tone while gesturing at her partner with an open hand.

"Likewise," Haruka said with a curt nod of her head.

"I hope I'm not being too imposing, but I have something very important to discuss with both of you," Setsuna said with a low-pitched tone that readily conveyed her urgency. "Would you two mind joining me in my office so we can speak in private?"

Confused expressions fell across the visages of both women, although Michiru was the first to convert her appearance into comprehensible words. "Does it have anything to do with the accident we were in?" she carefully asked.

Setsuna shook her head. "It has nothing to do with that, and by my casual observation I can readily discern that neither of you has anything to worry about from the minor accident," she said calmly. She took a small step closer to the table and spoke with a lower and more apprehensive voice. "Instead, it has something to do with a teenage girl you may know." Upon uttering those words the two pairs of eyes that stared upward at Setsuna simultaneously narrowed.

"You're talking about Usagi Tsukino, right?" Michiru asked anxiously, generating a nod from the doctor.

"What does that have to do with us?" Haruka tersely asked.

"That's what I want to talk to you about in my office," Setsuna responded evenly. She held her arm out to her side in a polite gesture requesting that they walk with her. "Now, if you'll please accompany me, I'll tell you anything you want to know… within reason."

After exchanging one worried glance at one another, the pair stood from the table, Haruka more begrudgingly than her partner, and securely grasped their belongings. They followed Setsuna out of the cafeteria, down the hall, and to the bank of elevators, all the while pondering the situation within which they somehow found themselves mired. A few minutes later, all three were inside Setsuna's private office. Haruka sat slouched in one chair with a slight scowl on her face, Michiru sat with wide-eyed attentiveness in another chair, and the doctor leaned with her back against the door she had just shut.

"Now, I'm sure you're all far more perplexed now than you were just a few minutes ago," Setsuna said.

"You're damned right about that," Haruka growled impatiently.

Any other person might have been flustered or felt insulted by the sandy-blonde's complaint, but for Setsuna it drew a tiny smile to her lips. "I see you haven't changed all that much," she said, which only served to further bewilder the pair.

"What does that mean?" Michiru asked agitatedly.

The doctor took a few steps away from the door and toward the seated lovers. "I'll get to all of that, if you'll allow me," she said as her eyes gazed intently at Haruka's impertinent stare before gradually shifting them to Michiru's questioning look. An awkward silence filled the room for several seconds before they both nodded in acquiescence. Only when she noticed the two slowly relax their postures did she begin to speak.

"Now, I'm sure both of you are aware of the existence of the Sailor Senshi," Setsuna said calmly. She received more nods in reply which prompted her to continue. "You may have seen news reports of the five fighting various creatures—youma as they are called—in this district of the city and occasionally elsewhere. They have been moderately successful at their task. In any case, those five girls are not the only senshi that exist."

"You mean there are more of them? Why haven't we seen them before?" Michiru alertly asked.

"Absolutely. Four more senshi to be exact," Setsuna replied with an uncharacteristically staccato voice.

Haruka and Michru continued to stare attentively into a narrowed pair of garnet eyes that were attached to a seemingly tranquil face. Strangely, Setsuna was less composed than she let on. There was so much the two women needed to learn about the situation and about themselves, and she wanted to inform them about that without completely startling them. Yet, she needed their assistance as quickly as possible, and every second that elapsed made her impending task far more difficult. She exhaled a tense sigh to collect herself and stifle the nervousness building within her, as well as to organize her thoughts, before resuming her explanation.

"I may be getting somewhat ahead of myself by saying this now, but I'm sure it will help your understanding of what I am trying to say," Setsuna said with evenness once again. "Anyway, the primary mission of the eight senshi is to protect a figure known as Princess Serenity. A side effect of this mission is that they tend to engage in a lot of fighting against the youmas that have appeared over the past several months. The goal of those youmas and the entity that created them is to ultimately kill the princess and destroy the Earth as they revive their own evil matriarch."

"I think I understand," Michiru said softly while slightly tilting her head to the side, "but I still don't get why you're telling us this information. And you haven't answered my question."

"I'm giving you this explanation about the senshi because you've met one of them," Setsuna replied. She momentarily paused. "Actually, you've met two of the other senshi by now, but more importantly is the fact that you've encountered the princess."

"Usagi?" Haruka murmured.

Setsuna nodded. "Yes. Usagi is Princess Serenity," she said calmly. "I'm certain you've noticed something peculiar about the girl whenever you're in her presence."

"I felt this strange warmth the last time I was with her, and again this morning when I briefly saw her," Michiru answered.

"Yeah, me too," Haruka quickly concurred, "although it wasn't painful or anything. More like calming and pleasant."

Setsuna's eyes narrowed imperceptibly. "That is to be expected from her," she said with a brief smile before focusing her gaze on the turquoise-haired woman. "Now, to directly answer your question, Kaiou-san, the reason you have heard nothing of the other senshi is that, for the most part, they haven't awakened and become aware of their powers." She deftly reached into her jacket pocket and wrapped her hand around the Lip Rod used to power her transformation. "Fortunately, that soon will change," she said in with a remarkably lower pitch to her voice that portended a sudden revelation.

In a move that utterly stunned both spectators, Setsuna pulled the lavender rod from her pocket and lifted it high above her head. With a shout of "Pluto Planet Power, Make Up," her body emitted an intensely bright lavender glow that threatened to blind Haruka and Michiru if they failed to shield their eyes. Seconds later, the woman with the dark-green hair topped by a small bun, the one who wore a businesslike dark red blouse, black skirt, and white lab coat, had disappeared. In her place was a tall woman who had the exact same dark-green hair, but she wore a uniform reminiscent of those sported by the senshi. Her skirt and tall boots were black, her bows were dark maroon, a garnet pendant hung from her black choker, and long, chevron-shaped garnet earrings were suspended from her ears. In all, she looked every bit like a senshi, except everything seemed darker and more morose. Furthermore, she held a tall staff in her hand that was topped by a softball-sized garnet-colored orb and which looked like a long, slender key.

"W-who are you?" Haruka shouted in a combination of fear and irritation. She stood in front of Michiru and glared at Setsuna with furious eyes.

"Please calm down, Haruka," Setsuna said with immense tranquility in her voice that countered the agitation she could sense from the other two. "I apologize for frightening you with my transformation. I am Sailor Pluto, the senshi of revolution and the one with the task of ensuring the proper flow of time."

"What are you going to do to us?" Haruka asked threateningly.

"If you're asking whether I intend to harm either of you, please rest assured that the answer is an emphatic 'no,'" an unflustered Setsuna replied. "Instead, I plan to awaken two more senshi."

Teal and cobalt-blue eyes widened and a pair of jaws dropped in surprise at the sudden admission. "Senshi… you're talking about us, right?" Michiru whispered, her voice slightly muffled by the close proximity of the woman who continued to shield her lover.

"Yes, Michiru. Both of you are Sailor Senshi," Setsuna said calmly. "You are Sailor Neptune, while Haruka is Sailor Uranus."

"But how is it possible that we're senshi?" Haruka asked harshly, her continued distrust of the stoic senshi standing before her plainly evident. "And, if this true, how haven't we noticed this before?"

"The memories of your true identities have not been awakened. Until that process occurs, you cannot transform," Setsuna replied. "Normally, the memories eventually become unlocked on their own, but given the pressing situation that I explained to you earlier, it's imperative that I assist you in accessing your dormant memories."

Michiru slowly pushed against Haruka's back, signaling to the blonde that she didn't need to stand in front of her with such a defensive stance. Haruka readily interpreted the sign and slowly moved to the turquoise-haired woman's side, her narrowed eyes locked on Setsuna the entire time. Michiru then slowly stood from her chair and walked toward the senshi, completely startling the ever-protective Haruka.

"Are these memories anything like those I experienced when I came into contact with Usagi?" Michiru hesitantly asked.

Setsuna nodded. "Yes. You're contact with the princess allowed those memories to come to the forefront," she said evenly. "However, the brief encounter with her was insufficient to fully release your memories and enable your transformations."

"So, what can we do to become the senshi we're supposed to be?" Michiru asked even more insistently.

Setsuna lifted the key-like Garnet Rod and tilted it so that the brilliant Garnet Orb was a few inches away from Michiru's face. "As I said before, I am the senshi responsible for the flow of time."

Immediately afterward, the orb began to emit a dark-red light, and a light wind swirled around the office. Michiru fell into a trance with her eyes fixated upon the orb. Her body gradually released a light-green glow, which indubitably alarmed Haruka. The blonde attempted to pull Michiru away from the orb but the elegant woman's frame would not budge. One last attempt to pull her lover away from the orb failed as her hands slipped and she flew backward into the metal desk, luckily escaping serious injury. She was relegated to staring in horror at the trembling Michiru as the red light flooded memories from a time long past into her mind. Suddenly, the astrological symbol of Neptune appeared on Michiru's forehead in radiant sea-green, and a rod, similar to the one Setsuna used minutes ago, floated before her body.

"When you take the rod, you will forever hold the identity of Sailor Neptune," Setsuna said somberly.

Michiru slowly reached for the rod levitating in front of her chest. A small part of her was fearful for the sudden and irreversible change in her life that would result the moment her fingers touched the lavender rod topped by the sea green, crescent-shaped symbol of her guardian planet. However, she inherently knew that it was her true purpose in life to become Sailor Neptune and to protect the moon and its princess from all threats. She wholeheartedly accepted that identity and with unflinching determination tightly grasped the rod in her hands. After a brief yet forceful explosion of green light, she stood dressed in the sea-green skirt and dark-blue bows of her senshi uniform. Her lips were pulled into a light smile as relief flushed over her.

"Michiru-chan…" Haruka uttered in disbelief and fear of what may have become of her dearest companion.

Michiru turned her head to gaze upon Haruka with the same grin and a mischievous glint in her eyes. "Your turn, Haruka-chan," she said with a somewhat playful tone that dissipated any anxiety that her partner had regarding either her condition or the process of regaining her memories. Her smile became wider as she smugly added, "Unless you're too scared."

"Heh, as if," Haruka muttered as she lifted herself from Setsuna's desk and walked to the center of the room. No longer was she afraid of what would happen as she knew that the senshi standing next to her was the same woman she loved dearly and who loved her just as strongly in return. Furthermore, Michiru's taunt ignited her competitive senses, and she was not about to admit defeat so easily.

"Do you accept your memories and identity as Sailor Uranus and the changes that will happen in your life as a result?" Setsuna asked solemnly.

Haruka's eyes closed and a deep furrow appeared along her brow as her mind intently contemplated the answer to Setsuna's query. She knew that her life also would be irrevocably altered by the process of becoming a senshi. Yet, she felt that she could not leave the love of her life isolated. She knew that the senshi regularly risked their lives in the battles against the youmas the senshi of time and revolution described. No part of her being could fathom leaving Michiru to fend for herself in such a struggle, even with the enhanced strength and magic that her identity promised. So, with only a few seconds delay, Haruka gave her response as a proud and resolute statement of one word: "Absolutely."

Setsuna pointed the Garnet Orb at Haruka in the same manner she did with Michiru. Seconds later, the identical dark-red light filtered from the round stone and flooded the room. The blonde could feel her body frozen in place as the memories of her past life and rightful identity inundated her mind. It felt intensely painful, yet the pain was dulled by the realization that what she saw in that sudden recollection was her true self. Furthermore, she was determined to stand by Michiru's side as a senshi, so determined that she doubted it was a coincidence that most of her memories closely involved the senshi of the sea. Soon, the golden symbol of Uranus appeared on her forehead and the rod that allowed her transformation materialized in front of her chest. Without any hesitation she grasped the rod and, with a tremendous flash of gold light, stood clothed in the navy-blue skirt and gold frontal bow that composed the trademark uniform of the senshi of wind, Sailor Uranus.

Setsuna released a huge sigh of relief at the sight of her fellow senshi. "Thank you," she said with absolute sincerity and a hint of joy when she pulled the Garnet Rod away from Haruka.

"Hey, it's our job after all," Haruka said with an arrogant grin. Her eyes narrowed and became more focused as her countenance revealed her shift to one of complete seriousness. "Now, what has happened to our princess, and whose ass do we have to kick to save her?" she asked with a harsh tone that, despite all appearances, was not intended for Setsuna.

The only response the senshi of revolution could give was to display a beaming smile as the pair of senshi she knew and desperately missed finally returned to her.


	30. Broken

**Chapter 30: Broken**

Usagi felt a sharp chill race along her arms and legs when she finally returned to a state of semi-consciousness, sending large goose pimples across her skin. Her sapphire-blue eyes slowly opened and attempted to harvest whatever tiny slivers of light they could find. No matter how widely her irises stretched themselves, the only thing she could perceive was total and complete darkness. Furthermore, her body felt as if it was suspended freely in the air, and she could feel nothing beyond the wisps of chilled air against her skin. She wasn't sitting, nor was she even lying upon anything. She was just floating. Her body began to shiver violently in an involuntary attempt to generate warmth. She felt a strong desire to find some refuge from the painfully freezing atmosphere, to do something as simple as rub her hands against her arms, but any attempt to move her arms ended in failure. She didn't know if she was paralyzed or if she ever would regain the ability to move her extremities at all. However, she soon discovered that she could move her fingers and toes, even if it were by only the tiniest motions. So, her body wasn't frozen—not yet, at least—but she still could not find sufficient strength for more extensive movements.

A series of loud taps reminiscent of painfully slow footsteps echoed about her and seemed to arrive from in front of her, and behind her, and above her, and… everywhere at once. She could hear the raps progressively grow louder and sharper, and she could soon recognize the sound as the impact of a boot's hard heel against a solid surface. Fear crept into her mind as an ominously dark energy tickled against her skin with every strike, sending an intense burning sensation through every nerve up to her brain. She wanted to scream so badly, but she could only gather enough energy to release a muted whimper. Soon, the taps were so loud, and the negative aura so great, that she almost fell unconscious once again. But she found that the person who tortured her so much by his mere presence would not allow her to slip away so easily.

"Princess," the man said in a smooth baritone voice that also managed to sound bitter, "I know you're wondering where you are, and what happened to you."

Usagi could only emit a barely audible groan in response. Even in her lethargic mental state, she had a fairly good idea where she was and how she got there. Instead, she had other questions she desperately wanted to ask. Why couldn't she do anything more than breathe shallowly, occasionally shiver uncontrollably, and make only the tiniest purposeful movements of her fingers, toes, and eyes? Was she really floating or was it just an illusion? What was causing her to feel so much pain all over her body, pain she couldn't begin to staunch? Most importantly, when could she see something more than just pitch black even with her eyes wide open? But, she lacked the vitality to move her lips and force the air through her vocal cords with enough force to speak coherently.

The man chuckled, although his mood blatantly was less than lively. "I see you haven't quite recovered fully from the ride," he said forebodingly. "That's fine, as it gives me the opportunity to speak uninterrupted for a few minutes."

The strange man circled around Usagi, although she could not discern the particulars of his movement. The sound still appeared to come from everywhere and the dark energy he radiated was so great that, frankly, it didn't matter where he stood in relation to her. At his proximity, her entire body was wracked in debilitating pain, though the man did not seem to care about her suffering one bit.

"Now, I shall preface my words by saying that, despite all appearances to the contrary, you have earned my highest respect," he said with a low tone that seemed to convey sincerity. "For you to survive this long as a normal girl without resorting to either of your transformations is astounding and quite unusual."

Usagi released another low grunt that the man was unsure how to correctly interpret. He impassively gazed at her for a few seconds before nodding his head and continuing his speech.

"In any case, I cannot guarantee your future survival here," the man said, this time far more ominously. "In fact, I can promise you that you will meet your well-deserved demise in short order, although it is unfortunate that it will not be by my hand. And, believe me, Princess, I have longed to end your pitiful existence for more time than you can imagine. But, I have my inviolable orders to not excessively harm you."

Usagi immediately recognized the irony in his statement and wished to verbalize her displeasure with it but she could only create another low moan instead.

The man turned and took a few steps away from Usagi, a motion she could perceive only as a slow series of taps that grew progressively quieter. Yet, it was a move she wholeheartedly welcomed, as it made her agony diminish ever so slightly.

"Now, as I said before, you may wonder where you are, although by this time I'm certain you already have a general idea," the man said with unusual calmness. "Unlike your comrades, I know you're not stupid. But I intend to provide you with information that goes beyond the obvious." He paused for a moment. "You are in a containment cell specifically designed to negate your unique powers. If you feel any floating sensation it is because, indeed, you are being levitated in space. The intent of all of this is to enable us to interrogate you freely. However, your current condition makes it difficult for us to obtain any useful information from you."

The man with the baritone voice gazed at Usagi's suspended figure with narrowed eyes. Her body was enveloped by a hazy purple sphere of dark energy that was precisely within the center of the large spherical room. He stood upon a solid platform that ended a few feet away from the girl's body and allowed him to meet her at eye level. On the other hand, she lacked the benefit of a platform and, in the case that the energy failed to maintain her levitation, the fall to the stone floor below indubitably would have been fatal. Thus, Usagi depended upon the charity of her captors for her continued survival, despite the fact that, by living, it meant she endured unspeakable agony.

"I suspect it will be a few more minutes before you've healed well enough to speak," the man said disappointedly. "It's a very difficult task to revive you without adding to your already tremendous power. We don't want to take any unnecessary risks at this stage."

Usagi attempted once again to move her lips in the requisite motions for speech. A tiny wave of euphoria filled her body when she managed to pucker her lips into the shape of a tiny 'O' and then pull her lips into a firm line. That was one part down in the great task of trying to talk. She then undertook the excruciating action of inhaling enough air into her lungs so that whatever words she could say would be audible. She felt as though she were trying to breathe a thick fluid instead of the light mixture of gasses to which she was accustomed. Yet, after a few cycles of deep gasping, her lungs readily accommodated the necessary air without sending devastating spikes of pain throughout her tender body. With those developments she knew she finally was able to articulate her thoughts.

"W-why c-c-can't I s-s-s-see a-a-any-t-thing?" she stuttered in a brutally agonizing whisper.

"You're rather brave to try to speak right now," the man answered patronizingly. "However, I recommend that you wait until you can actually do so in a fashion that is comprehensible."

With those words he exited the room, his resonating footsteps gradually diminishing and his aura of negative energy retreating from an entirely grateful princess. Utterly exhausted from her attempts to move and speak, she allowed her eyelids to fall over her dimmed eyes. Within seconds, she fell into a coma-like slumber. Unfortunately, she did not have much time to enjoy the brief respite, as she was soon wrested from her sleep by the entrance of another cruelly dark individual.

"Did you think I would let you relax for even a second, Princess?" the person asked with a higher-pitched, feminine voice that oozed spite.

The woman very deliberately marched closer to the exhausted and stressed Usagi. Each tap of her heels against the solid stone surface of the platform reverberated ominously about the chamber. With each progressive step the imprisoned girl could feel the painful stinging and burning sensation of the intensely dark energy that the unwelcomed visitor emitted. Worse, the woman seemed to know of the excruciating pain that her mere presence had on her prisoner, which made her purposeful saunter all the more sinister. The woman continued that slow pace until she was just a few feet away from her fellow blonde, a proximity that sent wave after wave of pain shooting through the girl's petite frame. There was nothing Usagi could do to calm or mitigate her inexorable agony, and she felt she was on the verge of death. But she knew she couldn't let go, and even if she wanted to, her captors would not allow it. For what it was worth, they wanted her alive just as much as she wanted to live.

"Now, I see we haven't been as properly acquainted as I would like," the woman said sarcastically as she narrowed her pale indigo eyes into a fearsome glare. She took a tiny step toward Usagi, which caused her to involuntarily squeeze her eyes shut as the pain ravaged her. "If only you could see, then you would know that we've – ahem – _run into each other_ once before."

Usagi could only hear her haunting laugh that punctuated that statement, but despite her lack of vision she immediately knew who it was that taunted her. "Y-you're t-that woman f-from before," she mumbled, her stuttering less obvious than before but still very much present.

"Heh. Very good, young princess. That is exactly correct." She sneered, knowing full well the girl could not see it.

"W-who are you?" Usagi asked more forcefully.

The woman sighed, and her voice thereafter was remarkably calm. "Let's just say for now that I'm an agent stuck between two bosses." Resentment quickly replaced that calmness. "And for that you're pretty lucky, as there's nothing more that I'd like to do at this moment than kill you and get this whole process moving again. However, the one boss that can actually _do_ anything doesn't want that to occur. The only way I can seem to move up in this organization is to play by her rules, which means I can't even touch you right now."

"Who are you?" By then, Usagi found she had enough strength to speak without stuttering, which surprised both her and her captor. Furthermore, she somehow was able to push aside the otherwise constant sensation of pain, further emboldening her.

"Boy, are you ever so persistent." She paused for a moment before speaking again with the same amount of disdain present in her tone. "Don't worry about my name, as you won't live long enough to need it. Instead think of me as your interrogator and the one who will be asking the questions from this point."

"And if I refuse?"

The woman sighed again, this time with disappointment, though fury swiftly bubbled to the surface. "What did I just say about asking questions, you impertinent bitch?"

The woman extended her hand toward the girl's chest with her fingers stopping only inches from the black robe covering the pigtailed blonde. The moment her hand reached its apex ferocious waves of pain far more intense than anything Usagi had perceived before flowed over her, the obvious consequence of the blast of dark energy the woman fired at her. She clenched her eyes and jaws shut as she struggled to fight against it but to no avail, and within seconds she found herself slipping away. It was a deliberately muted attack as the woman had strict orders not to kill or excessively harm her prisoner. But the meaning of 'excessively harm' was intentionally left vague, and she reasoned that teaching the girl a lesson would not violate that command. Nonetheless her method appeared to work as the girl, once she regained consciousness, surely would not interrupt her.

"Now," the woman said irately after several minutes of impatiently waiting for Usagi to awaken, "you will not ask me any questions. I will ask you questions and you will answer them. Do you understand me?"

"Y-yes," Usagi replied meekly.

A broad smile appeared on the woman's lips. "Heh. Very good. Now for the first question: what is your name?"

Usagi was dumbfounded by the question, as she knew that whoever was holding her already was aware of her identity. That crucial knowledge was critical in successfully capturing her, after all. In any case, the girl remained silent for several seconds, an act that only served to aggravate her questioner.

"Come on, just answer the damned question."

"Usagi Tsukino," she replied with uncertainty.

"Good. Now, what is your _real_ name?" The particular emphasis sent chills through the girl's body.

"Serenity," Usagi whispered. She felt nervous admitting her identity to her captor despite knowing that her interrogator already had the information.

"Do you have any other identities besides Usagi and Serenity?"

Usagi paused once again. How could she answer that question? She reasoned the woman assumed an answer of 'Sailor Moon,' but without her brooch she could not transform. She couldn't actually _be_ that senshi of love and justice. Thus she was at a crossroads that was created by the confluence of her questioner's expectations with the unknown reality. She knew the repercussions would be severe if she lied, but the problem was she didn't know which response the woman would interpret as being untrue. However, she also knew she couldn't spend too much time mulling over the question or else she risked the same kind of punishment. Ultimately she decided to give the woman the answer she knew was true at one time, even if it no longer was the case, and just hope that the consequences settled in her favor.

"Sailor Moon," Usagi answered in a shaky voice.

"And how do you become Sailor Moon? And by that I mean, do you use any specific item to transform into your senshi form?" the woman asked with a tone that revealed her palpable suspicion.

Usagi felt a small lump generate within her throat. "I… I use a brooch to transform," she whispered.

"What does that brooch look like?" the woman asked more forcefully.

"It's round and gold in color." She purposefully provided only the barest specifics.

"Do you usually carry it on your person?"

"Yes."

The woman nodded her head a few times, although Usagi inevitably could not see that gesture. "Hmmm… Interesting. I'll have to get back to that point later." She paused while she took a few steps to the other side of Usagi's body, a movement the girl failed to perceive. Her voice was more even when she spoke again. "Do you have any friends or allies that fight with you?"

"Yes," Usagi replied in a low whisper.

"And what are their names and associated identities?"

"You know who they are."

"Maybe so, but you will answer my question, or else," the woman snapped.

Usagi feared what her captor and interrogator meant by the threat, but she figured it would have to be as bad or even worse than what knocked her unconscious the first time. Unwilling to suffer through that unbearable pain once again she quickly provided the answer demanded of her. However, she decided to be both brutally honest and wilily deceitful in her answer.

"Yes, I do have allies," Usagi said with astounding vehemence in her tone. "Three of them. Mars, Jupiter, and Venus. And if it weren't for you all it would have been four."

The woman laughed creepily for a few seconds before she walked closer to Usagi and placed her lips immediately next to the restrained girl's ear in order to give her response. The suffering she inevitably felt from the dark energy almost knocked Usagi unconscious, but amazingly she found the will to maintain her awareness. However, it was only a matter of time before she succumbed yet again. A consequence of the woman's close proximity and her evil radiance was that it was impossible for her to breathe, as the destructive aura seemed to clench her throat shut. No matter how hard she gasped and struggled for air there was none to be had.

"I'm very aware of that, Princess, and if you maintain this defiant attitude none will be left by time we're done," she whispered sinisterly. She then approached even more closely. "Also, I will kill everyone you hold dear to you, starting with your lovely little brother Shingo, then your sweet mom Ikuko and your ever-protective dad Kenji if you ever talk insolently to me again."

The woman backed away from Usagi and the pigtailed blonde could begin breathing once again. She took in huge gulps of air, or as much as she could given her restricted ability to move. Feeling the air fill her lungs was a sweet relief as she was on the verge of oblivion, yet the process was almost as painful as the torture of asphyxiation. Her blatant distress did not faze her captor, and soon she resumed her pointless and utterly redundant questioning without waiting for her to fully catch her breath.

"Now, as I asked before, what are the names and associated identities of all of the other senshi?" she asked smugly.

"Minako Aino is Sailor Venus, Makoto Kino is Sailor Jupiter, Rei Hino is Sailor Mars, and Ami… Ami Mizuno is Sailor Mercury," Usagi whispered in a defeated tone.

"Where could we normally find these girls?"

Usagi hesitated, as she knew there were numerous places where they could have been at any given time. Normally they were at Hikawa Shrine, but they had an equal probability of being at their respective schools or at Crown Arcade and Fruit Parlor. Beyond that they were at their individual homes, which in Rei's case was the shrine. The problem was that, with the exception of Makoto's apartment, any location she gave would expose innocent people to the wicked machinations of her captors. However, she knew that none of the information was secret and that whatever location she chose to give already would be known to them. The whole interrogation was utterly strange and so far seemed to serve a purpose other than finding new information. The true goal was a complete mystery to her.

"Um, Hikawa Shrine."

The woman nodded nonchalantly. "Anywhere else?"

"Crown Arcade and school." The resignation in her whispered tone revealed how much she believed that there was no longer any point in even attempting to fight back against the woman.

"Hmmm… you say school, but do all of the senshi go to the same one?"

"No."

Usagi anticipated yet another meaningless question from the authoritarian woman, probably something about which schools do the girls attend. However, she was stunned when her interrogator abruptly started to walk away from her.

"There will be plenty more questions, Princess, and I assure you those will be far more difficult than any of those," the woman said arrogantly as she walked, her voice slowly fading in the girl's ears due to the increasing distance. The woman then stopped and turned to Usagi, glaring at her with narrowed indigo eyes that the blonde could not discern. "I will be back later, and that is when the _real_ interrogation begins," she added in an unusually low-pitched and reverberating tone that utterly frightened the helpless princess before finally departing the chamber.

—|1|**2**|3|4|—

"So, do you have any insight into what is occurring at the princess's house?" Kunzite expectantly asked upon the return of the general he considered akin to his younger brother.

Zoisite shrugged his shoulders, the display of tentativeness a far cry from his usual conceitedness. "All I know is that they're moving, but I have no clue as to where. The three moving trucks left the house in different directions and I had to call up two youmas to help me track their movements."

"Interesting. It seems as though the princess knew that we were targeting her family and tried to move them in a way so we wouldn't know where she went."

"What do you think we should do?"

"Call off the youmas for one. We shouldn't be attracting any more attention to our activities," Kunzite replied calmly. "We already have the princess, so whatever they try to do is a wasted effort."

"Wait, you have captured the princess?" Zoisite asked in a mixture of shock and elation. Upon the affirmative nodding of Kunzite's head a broad, if not slightly wicked, smile stretched across the blond general's lips.

"She's in the containment chamber." Kunzite's eyes narrowed with concern as he gazed at the disturbing grin his counterpart displayed. "We have strict orders from Beryl not to harm the princess. Let me be the first to tell you to remove any thoughts of having your so-called 'fun' with the princess from your mind."

"Calm down," Zoisite said in an attempt to diffuse Kunzite's suspicion of him. "I'm not going to do anything to her. I know better than to cross Beryl."

"You had better." He pointed a fierce glare at the youngest Shitennou member before retreating to his personal chamber.

Zoisite sighed. _"Well, there goes that plan,"_ he thought ruefully as he slowly meandered around the small, stone-walled chamber that served as a sort of situation room for the generals.

He slumped into one of the chairs and stared at some of the papers that were strewn across the surface of the rectangular desk. Those sheets contained a tiny fraction of the aggregate information that they gathered from their observation of the senshi ever since Kunzite discovered Usagi's identity as Sailor Moon. He lifted one of the sheets in his hands and scanned it. It contained a list of the names of every student in each one of Usagi's classes. That data was gathered by more mundane method of gathering the attendance rolls from the middle school while pretending to repair one of their broken computers. There were tons of similar bits of information about the girl, some of it completely useless and others eminently vital, that were collected by similar means. With the exception of establishing that Usagi and Ami attended the same school and shared some classes, the list of names clearly belonged to the former group. Nevertheless it was physical evidence that the Dark Kingdom did not have to rely on magic and dark energy for everything. He lackadaisically dropped the sheet back onto the table and expelled a tired sigh.

"_I may not be able to have any enjoyment with the princess, at least not yet, but that's fine. I'm just happy this whole thing will be over soon."_ He pushed himself up from the chair and prepared to teleport himself back into the middle of Juuban.

"In any case, I might as well find those youmas I sent before they cause any more trouble than is necessary," he said as he disappeared in flash of gold light and a wisp of black smoke.

—|1|2|**3**|4|—

The slow melody that emanated from Saeko's cell phone startled the venerable doctor from her brief slumber. It was an indispensable reminder that there was crucial business that needed to be completed. She had spoken to the appropriate representatives at the hospital that ultimately would accept Usagi's family as patients after their clandestine transfer. This call was from the head of the staff members who would move the patients to the rooftop helipad and load them onto the medevac helicopter. The original plan used ambulances, but the moment she received the encoded text message from Usagi she requested the fastest transfer method available to the hospital. Time was of the utmost significance when it came to dealing with the overwhelming power of the Dark Kingdom.

"Mizuno here," Saeko said with a tired voice.

"Are the patients ready to be transferred?" sounded a husky, masculine voice through the handset's speaker.

"All three of them are stabilized and prepared to be moved." Anxiety crept into her mind during the short pause. "How long should this take?"

"Shouldn't be any different than any other patient transfer," he said calmly. "No more than thirty minutes for them to arrive at their destinations."

"That's good." She was relieved, although a hint of nervousness remained. It was concealed behind the formal tone her voice adopted. "Now, I just want to confirm that everything is correct. Kenji will be going to the burn unit to examine the progression of the treatments on his lower extremities, while Ikuko and Shingo will be sent to radiology for X-rays. Is that what you have?"

"That's what my records state," the man said with equivalent reserve. He paused for a moment, and the air of formality faded. "They're in good hands, Saeko-san."

Saeko sighed. "I know, Daichi-san," she said softly.

"So are you."

"Thanks." He didn't need to elaborate for her to know what he meant.

"I'll talk to you again soon."

"Absolutely."

Saeko flipped the phone shut after completing her conversation with Daichi Watanabe, the older gentleman and staff member responsible for transferring patients between departments. His second best trait was that he was extremely trustworthy and had proven as much many times, which was why he had sufficient clearance to handle the clandestine patient transfers. He was one of the select individuals who had knowledge of the true nature of the transfer. The hospital trusted him to maintain important secrets. Moreover, Saeko trusted him. They were close personal friends, and had been for the entirety of her employment at the hospital. So, she knew Daichi would ensure that nobody beyond those absolutely essential to the process would learn the destination of those three important patients. Furthermore, she knew that if she did face trouble from the hospital administration, it wouldn't be due to Daichi. That was because his best trait was passionate loyalty to friends.

The doctor pushed herself up from her cushioned seat and looked around her office. In her mind she pondered if it would be the last time she would see the interior of that office. She had nothing there of any importance that she couldn't retrieve at a later date or have someone send to her if she really desired it. Her eyes turned to one corner of her desk and spotted the lone exception to that sentiment. She walked to the desk and lifted the small picture frame into her hands. It contained a photograph of her with Ami that was taken at a school function a year ago, months before her daughter discovered her identity as a senshi. It was a picture of a mother gently holding her daughter with both displaying wide, magnificent smiles on cheerful faces. She knew that sort of happiness and togetherness was lacking in recent months. A tear fell from her eyes and rolled down her cheek as she realized that such a moment would never occur again. She held the frame tightly to her chest as she walked out of the office. If she couldn't make any more special memories with her daughter, then at the very least she would hold onto the memories that already existed.

—|1|2|3|**4**|—

The tense atmosphere was palpable as Mamoru took his seat at the dining room table, a glass of water held firmly in his hand, and stared at the three teenage girls sitting on the other end. Silence permeated the atmosphere for several minutes as he searched for a suitable way to broach to them the myriad of questions he desperately wanted to ask. Certainly there were several things that he didn't understand, and the most pressing of his thoughts was how everything within his life and theirs had come to change so drastically. During the last month, and especially over the past twelve days, the relationships between him, Usagi, and the other senshi had shifted and transformed starkly. He knew that the girls had abandoned their friendship of the girl whose love he discarded for that of the senshi of Mercury. Those events clearly were difficult on Usagi, but none of them could have imagined the profound effects they would have on their lives, the most extreme of which being Ami's untimely death.

At the same time the girls were searching their minds for any clues regarding what their host was contemplating, but they were coming up empty. His face gave them no suggestion of the complex debate raging within his mind. They wanted some idea to grasp so that they wouldn't be utterly surprised by whatever announcement he would make. They had more than enough shocks for the day already.

"I know what happened to Ami," Mamoru said evenly, finally breaking the silence with a tone that only carried the smallest hints of dejection. "I know that she is dead, and I miss her so much. I wish I could have done more to save her. But that's not the thing I want to talk to you about right now."

"What is it then?" Minako asked softly, passing to him a sympathetic gaze.

"I… I just can't get over what happened to Usagi… what you all did to her." His eyes narrowed ever so slightly.

"What do you mean by 'what we did to her'?" Rei asked indignantly. "We didn't do anything to her that she didn't deserve to have happen to her."

Mamoru turned his head toward Rei as a minute expression of anger cast over his face. "What could she possibly have done to deserve the attacks she received by your hands?"

Rei was angrier still. "Beyond trying to kill me, and pretending that it was all an accident, she sold us out. It was her fault that we got ambushed, and it was _her_ fault that Ami died."

"There's no way that's possibly true." His own fury amassed within him and threatened to explode in a way the three girls had never before seen. "She's not that kind of person."

Minako's expression turned harsh. "Well, how else would you explain Zoisite ambushing us at the park at the exact time she was supposed to show up to hand us the Silver Crystal?"

Mamoru's eyes immediately widened and a slight pall covered his face the moment the words filtered into his consciousness. "Wait, why would she want to hand over her Silver Crystal?"

"So that we could give it to the princess," Makoto replied matter-of-factly.

"We were surprised that she agreed so easily to do that after refusing for so long," Rei added coolly at first before shifting a disillusioned tone. "We should have known it was merely a trap for that bitch to hurt us once more."

Mamoru rapidly shifted his eyes from one girl to the other and back around once again. At no time could he believe the vitriolic words that were emanating from their mouths. He found Rei's words especially telling as she placed the blame for Ami's death squarely upon Usagi.

"What… How could you believe any of that about Usagi? How can you even think that she's not the princess?" the dumbfounded man asked, his gaze mainly directed at Minako.

"How can you think otherwise, given the way she's acted all this time?" Minako countered while returning his stare with a fierce glare. "She's sabotaged our fights under the guise of being slow, klutzy, and uncoordinated. At first we went along with it, not knowing any better, hoping that she would improve with our help. But as we realized that there's no way she was the princess, we learned that she had other motives."

"And just what would those motives be?" Mamoru asked irately, his perplexed stare transforming into a stormy glower.

"To destroy us," Minako said resolutely. "To destroy us and to take the crystal from our princess either for herself or to give to the Dark Kingdom."

Mamoru slowly shook his head. "That… that has to be the _stupidest_ thing I have heard in a long time!" he shouted with a booming voice that stunned both him and the girls sitting across the table from him. "Usagi can't steal the crystal from the princess because Usagi _is_ the princess! She's the princess, and her own guardians, the very people who she should be able to trust the most, have abandoned her! Unbelievable!"

Rei folded her arms in front of her chest and leveled a contemptuous stare at him. "If that's the case, then so has her prince."

Tempestuous dark-blue eyes turned to meet fiery violet counterparts. "That's different."

"Oh, _really_?" Makoto replied warily. "You did dump her after all, so you can't sit here and claim to be any better than us."

"And given that you apparently believe that Usagi is the princess, you dumping her for Ami is far worse than anything we could have done," Minako doggedly added.

Mamoru looked at the wry grin that tugged at Rei's lips and the other smug expressions of the girls before him as a new wave of resentment washed over him. Certainly they were right when they said he had hurt Usagi when he discarded her and the tremendous love she offered for Ami. However, he still cared for her even though he dearly loved Ami, a feeling he realized when he met with the blonde a few days ago. It was clear that none of them held any similar consideration for the girl they formerly considered their leader. If they had any legitimate reason for doing so he wouldn't have minded, but their justifications were complete nonsense in his mind. Their irrational words reminded him of Usagi's desperate behavior and suicide attempt, which served to further infuriate him. Another section of his mind recalled the strange questions she had posed before and after her attempt to end her life in front of him. He realized that she knew that the girls doubted her legitimacy as the princess and wanted his reassurance that he believed in her. However, that was far from sufficient to explain all of her curious and astoundingly probing questions. He resolutely decided that the time had arrived for him to get to the bottom of everything.

"I know I hurt Usagi and that I hurt her badly, but we've talked about it and have come to an understanding," he said quietly but with palpable fury. "I don't hate her the way you all do, and I have no idea why you hate her or why you continue to claim she's not the princess that she clearly is."

"I despise her because she tried to kill me, and it's blatantly fucking obvious how she's not the princess so I'm surprised to hear you keep saying that she is," Rei replied with equal anger.

A short, peculiar chuckle escaped Mamoru's lips before he spoke with a strange mixture of calmness and contempt. "I hear you all continue to say that, but I don't hear any actual explanation. All I get from your words is 'she's not the princess because she isn't,' and that's not good enough, especially after all of us _saw_ her as the princess. In fact it's completely moronic. So, if you actually have a good reason to believe Usagi is not the princess, please tell me. I'm all ears."

Minako's hard gaze softened ever so slightly, and Makoto's even more. Only Rei continued to stare down the older man with her ferociously intense glare. However, all three girls quickly realized that Mamoru did not know their reasoning for doubting Usagi's identity as Princess Serenity. And why would he know when he wasn't a senshi after all. So it was only proper for him to know their truth, and the leader of the senshi would be the one to begin the explanation after taking in and exhaling a deep breath.

"Mamoru, the reason we believe that Usagi cannot be the princess is that at no point as far back as we can remember was the princess also a senshi," Minako said calmly despite the callous stare she directed at the man. "Usagi is a senshi in Sailor Moon, but she is only a senshi. Furthermore, she is a senshi who did not take the same eternal promise we took to protect the princess of the Silver Millennium."

"I see…" Mamoru said evenly with a slight nod of his head. Minako's expressions relaxed and her eyes started to light up as she interpreted his motions as understanding and acceptance of her explanation. Conversely, his eyes narrowed even more as he leaned toward the blonde. "Minako, do you believe I'm Prince Endymion?" he asked softly, almost innocently.

"Yes, I do," Minako quickly replied. Her face contorted into a confused expression as she tried to figure out why Mamoru asked such a basic question.

"How about you two?" Mamoru asked of Makoto and Rei. The two girls readily nodded their heads in affirmation.

Mamoru disappointedly shook his head before returning a frosty glare at Minako. "By your own logic you shouldn't believe that I am Endymion," he said with bitter coldness. "I mean, nobody ever remembered the vaunted prince of Earth being a tuxedo-wearing, rose-throwing weirdo, and yet I am both of those things in your eyes. So while I'm somewhat happy that you actually have a reason for your disbelief of Usagi, it's so farfetched as to be utterly ridiculous."

All three girls started to protest immediately after Mamoru stopped speaking. Minako was expectedly indignant for being called an idiot in not so few words. Makoto was trying to add further reasoning for why she thought Usagi was not the princess. The hotheaded Rei, meanwhile, was spouting a series of insults and relaying her fervent belief that he was the moron and not any of them. He summarily halted all of their comments with the fierce bellow of "_Enough!_"

"I don't care what other poor justifications you may have for hating Usagi, but you had damned well better understand right now that she is the princess just as much as I am the prince," Mamoru said with a quieter tone that still conveyed his exasperation. "She's not the hateful girl that you say she is, and she's definitely not trying to hurt any of you."

Rei huffed. "Well then, why didn't she do anything to save Ami?"

"She did _EVERYTHING_ she could to save Ami!" Mamoru replied animatedly with his fist slamming against the table as emphasis. "She was trapped in a battle with Kunzite from which she couldn't escape due to the barrier of dark energy surrounding her. The only reason she was able to get to the park at all was because I intervened in their fight and allowed her to finally subdue Kunzite and destroy the barrier." He sullenly lowered his head and pointed his eyes at the dark-brown wood grain of the table's surface. "And, it was my fault she didn't get to the park soon enough to save Ami because I didn't intervene immediately. I should have gone to Usagi and helped her much sooner than I did. So, if you want to blame anyone for Ami's death, Rei, blame me, _not_ Usagi."

All three girls immediately blanched the moment he revealed to them what she was doing away from the park and why she took such a long time to arrive there. Three pairs of eyes stared blankly at Mamoru, among them a jade-green pair that slowly widened in realization before they became incredibly dim and tear-filled. Makoto felt especially horrible and sick of herself for her treatment of Usagi and for using her deadly attacks against her. Unlike Rei and possibly Minako, she didn't hate Usagi personally. Instead she loathed the idea that she was a traitor to them and that she sold them out to their enemy and left Ami to die. However, upon hearing from Mamoru that she was doing everything in her power to leave and get to the park, any ill will she had toward Usagi immediately faded. She still had some doubts about whether the girl truly was the princess, but among the remaining senshi she was the one most ready to believe. Above all she desperately wanted her friend back, princess or otherwise.

"I'm sorry," Makoto whispered as the tears escaped her eyelids and rolled down her cheeks.

"Sorry for _what_?" Rei snapped as she turned toward the brunette. "She put herself in that situation and, despite what _he_ might say—" she pointed an extended finger at Mamoru— "I still believe she got what she deserved."

"You're wrong, Rei," Makoto countered gloomily. "She didn't deserve for us to attack her and for us to banish her and take her transformation brooch."

Mamoru was glad he was seated, or else he would have tumbled to the floor purely from shock. "Wait, you girls took away Usagi's transformation brooch? Why would you _do_ that?"

"Because we honestly thought she was a threat to us," Minako answered with utmost gravity in her voice. Her eyes didn't hold the contempt that they previously possessed but they remained steadfastly locked on Mamoru's face. "Even now, with your explanation, I'm not entirely convinced she's not a threat to us, because for all your certainty you don't know what we know. You don't have our memories of the past and who our princess was."

"Maybe not, but I do have my own memories of the princess and Usagi fits those perfectly. In fact she fits them more now than at any time I've seen her," he retorted as his steely gaze met Minako's. "And now you've left the princess completely abandoned and defenseless right when she's most vulnerable."

Makoto loudly pounded her fist against the table. "Damnit," she muttered almost inaudibly as the tears fell even more rapidly. She abruptly pushed herself up from the table and marched toward the door. "I'm going to go find her," she said, or rather almost yelled. "Princess or not, I'm not going to sit around and let something bad happen to Usagi."

Rei swiftly stood up and glared ferociously at the tall girl who, at the moment, she still considered a friend. "No way in _hell_ I'm going to let you do that!"

Her tears momentarily subsided as Makoto stopped and turned to meet the challenge proposed by the senshi of fire. "I dare you to try and stop me," she said coldly. The figure of strength she projected was imposing and intimidating, and she could tell that Rei, despite her bravado, was having second thoughts.

"There will not be any fighting between you two," Minako interjected loudly while turning her eyes back and forth between the raven-haired girl and the brunette.

"Certainly not in my apartment," Mamoru added dryly. He turned to look at Makoto and gazed upon her gently. "Now, I know you want to find Usagi. I absolutely hope you do, as I haven't been able to find her or get in contact with her ever since last night."

"Is she not at home?" Makoto asked innocently.

"I went there this morning and the only people at her house were movers. Lots of them, as a matter of fact." He sighed miserably. "I don't know why they're moving, but from looking at what you girls did to her I wouldn't be surprised if she's decided to get away from you." That comment elicited a sharp glower from both Minako and Rei and a contrite look from Makoto.

"Are you suggesting that we drove Usagi away?" Makoto remorsefully asked.

Rei chuckled with hopeful delight. "I hope so."

"I hope _not_," Mamoru countered resolutely while scowling at the shrine maiden. "I strongly doubt the three of you together could handle Kunzite or any of the other Shitennou members the way Usagi did, let alone take them on one by one. So, I strongly suggest that you find her and give her back the brooch so that she could at least take care of herself."

Minako slowly pushed herself up from her chair and stepped away from the dining room table. "I'll think about it," she said solemnly as she turned a fleeting glance toward Mamoru before walking to the apartment door. She stopped and turned to look at Mamoru one last time with piercing blue eyes.

"I still believe I am right," she said defiantly before turning her back to him and opening the door. She purposefully walked through the threshold and was quickly followed by Rei. Makoto hesitated for a few seconds, giving Mamoru an apologetic expression and mouthing the word "sorry" before turning to follow the other two girls, lightly closing the door behind her.

Mamoru laid his head down upon his folded arms and sighed yet again, this time more morosely than before. He was pleased that Makoto was beginning to see things rationally, but the stubbornness of Minako and Rei aggravated him to no end. How could they continue to believe that Usagi was not the princess they were supposed to defend with their lives if necessary?

Suddenly he felt a surging sensation of warmth and pain flow through his body that caused him to jerk his head up from the table. A cold chill then ran down his spine as she realized exactly what he felt. It was Usagi's unmistakable cry for help, a very similar call to the one he felt when she encountered Kunzite the previous day. The difference was that this call was far softer and more distant than the last. Even as he headed for his balcony, red rose in hand to initiate his transformation, he questioned why the girl would be so far away from Juuban.

However, just as soon as he felt the cry for assistance it suddenly ceased and the involuntary pull on his body slackened. No longer could he sense any signal from the princess. He stopped at the edge of his balcony and looked over the city and up into the cloudy sky. Under normal conditions he would have figured that, somehow, Usagi had dealt with the threat and destroyed whatever had attempted to attack her. But he learned that early afternoon that Usagi no longer held the ability to transform into Sailor Moon, so whatever it was that halted the signal had to have been quite terrible. His heart sank to his stomach and he felt nauseous just imagining what could have befallen Usagi. He slowly turned back from the balcony and trudged into his apartment.

"_I absolutely hope that whatever happened that you're truly alright,"_ he whispered to nobody as he laid his body across his sofa and contemplated how things possibly could get any worse.


	31. Inside the Kingdom of Darkness

**Chapter 31: Inside the Kingdom of Darkness**

Fear is a strange beast that can cause people to do uncharacteristic acts, depending on the amount to which they are exposed to the sensation. In the right proportions it can be paralyzing to people who normally are leaders and take command of situations. Sometimes, it can be motivational, willing a person away from the precipice of failure and encouraging them to do the things necessary to achieve victory, even if those acts are undesirable. The response varies from individual to individual, but the common thread is that the end result of exposure to fear often is transformative.

Usagi was no different from any other person aside from her dual alternate identities as the powerful Sailor Moon and the impressive yet enigmatic Princess Serenity. For a while she was the de-facto leader of the senshi, although she never really exuded a commanding aura during the numerous battles the senshi fought against the forces of the Dark Kingdom. Soon she lost her title as leader to the true leader of the senshi in Sailor Venus. Not long thereafter she lost the love and respect of her comrades and even her ability to transform into the potent warrior she never had the opportunity to reveal to them. Nevertheless, when it came to fear and her response to it, she was much like anyone else in that fear changed her. The fear of failure was her main motivator, not for her personal sake but for the knowledge of what would befall the victims of her opponents should she lose and the monsters win. So it was the same when the former senshi-turned-captive found herself imprisoned within the bowels of the Dark Kingdom, unable to see anything but darkness and feel anything but the stinging pain of negative energy flow all about her. Once again, however, her responses to fear were proportional to the amount of the emotion to which she was exposed. She was about to sense a level of fear that she had never experienced and no person rightfully should ever suffer. Her captors would not have it any other way.

A sudden sensation of warmth filled the girl's tiny frame, but it wasn't the pleasing warmth that she instilled within others. Instead she felt as though she were doused with fuel and set aflame, but she could feel the burning throughout her body instead of just on her skin. Although she also felt a similar sensation in the presence of the woman she would later know as Sazaratha, it was a completely different feeling from any she had experienced to that point. Furthermore, she couldn't sense any beings enter the chamber where she was confined. Normally the footsteps would reverberate off the solid stone walls of the chamber, allowing her to easily detect when a person was moving about and infer by the volume of those steps, along with the intensity of the negative energy she perceived, the proximity of the person to her. But there continued to be complete and utter silence to accompany the torture she endured.

"_Do they enjoy hurting me so badly?"_ Usagi pondered within her mind as her body was wracked by excruciating pain. _"Why won't they just go ahead and kill me like they say they want to?"_

The awful sensation continued for what she thought to be hours, although in reality it was only a few minutes. Worse than her shooting pain was the fact she had no ability to do anything, effective or otherwise, to assuage it. The only movements she could make were to blink her eyes and to move her mouth and lips to speak. Otherwise, her body was completely frozen in space, and all of her reflexive desires to curl herself into a ball or to scratch herself silly were unavailable to her. She could do nothing but remain in her position, with her arms and legs splayed outward from her torso and try to endure the pain or allow herself to slip out of consciousness. However, the last thing she desired or would allow her body to do was to entirely succumb to the agony. She didn't want to die as she believed, even in her current situation, that she still had the chance to prevail. But at the same time she wasn't a feline's eventual meal and she didn't want to be played with in the same way. If she had truly lost all opportunities to win and they were going to kill her, then she felt that they should at least hurry up and do the job.

Eventually the dreadful burning sensation disappeared and she had a modicum of time to recover. In the same sense that she perceived her suffering to occur for a longer length of time than had actually occurred, she deemed her respite to be woefully shorter than the ten minutes that had elapsed before she felt the stinging and burning sensation she recognized from before. Furthermore she could hear the unmistakable clicks of heels against stone that told her someone had entered the chamber and slowly was approaching her. She realized that woman had returned to resume her interrogation and she steeled herself for more inane questions.

"So, I see you're awake," Sazaratha said with a sneer as she walked to within feet of Usagi, standing to the right side of the suspended girl. Her closeness served to intensify the princess's agony and she knew it. A wry smile tugged at her lips. "You must be ready for the actual interrogation now."

"_Not that I have much of a choice,"_ Usagi wistfully thought. She wondered just how different the 'real' interrogation would be in comparison to what she experienced previously.

"I'll take that as a yes," Sazaratha said in reply to the anticipated silence. She slowly walked around to the other side of Usagi's body. "Anyway, rules are pretty simple, just like before. I ask questions and you answer them honestly. You don't ask questions and you don't talk back or else you will suffer." She leaned closer to Usagi, eliciting a slight whimper in response. "Do you understand me?" she asked with a harsh whisper.

"Y-yes," Usagi muttered through clenched teeth as she attempted as best as she could to survive the severe pain shooting through her body.

"Excellent," Sazaratha said sardonically as she took a few steps away from the blonde, if only so the girl could actually have enough strength to speak. "Now, you say you keep your transformation brooch in your possession, but when we searched your belongings we found nothing that even came close to looking like the object you described," she said contemptuously while glaring at her adversary. "Where is your brooch?"

Usagi hesitated for a few moments before answering in a terse whisper, "I don't have it."

Sazaratha sighed disappointedly and shook her head, an action Usagi could not witness. "Look, we already _know_ you don't have the damn brooch. My question is, if you don't have it, then who _does_?"

Once again Usagi paused, her mind racing to determine how to best answer the question without revealing too much about the deteriorated state of the relationship between her and the other senshi. She knew the Dark Kingdom was aware that the girls no longer favored her, but she was uncertain they knew just how much they hated her. She hoped they differentiated between a loss of friendship and a desertion of duty. She prayed that they would interpret her words in a way that reflected her desired outcome and not the reality of the situation.

"I handed the brooch to my fellow senshi," Usagi said in a soft yet resolute tone.

"Oh, so you did, did you?" Sazaratha replied mockingly. "I can't imagine why you would want to do something like that. Can you 'enlighten me,' as my co-worker would say?" She shuffled a few paces around Usagi but maintained her distance while maintaining her probing stare. "Or, to put it another way, why would you do something so stupid?"

"I did it so that it wouldn't end up in your possession," Usagi said firmly although her voice still barely rose above a whisper.

Sazaratha gradually stepped closer to Usagi, causing the pigtailed blonde to clench her eyes shut as her only means of mitigating her intensifying suffering. "You see, there's something wrong with that answer. The only way you'd be afraid that we'd take your brooch is if you knew you were going to be captured in the first place. However, if you figured that would happen, then I would think you'd keep the damned thing so you could fight back." She stopped walking and momentarily halted her brief diatribe.

An emotion of apprehension broke through the overwhelming sensation of agony once Usagi realized what Sazaratha had said. Indeed, she had the uncanny ability to see occasional glimpses of her future when they come to her seemingly at random, and she had foreseen her capture by the Dark Kingdom. Granted, that particular vision occurred after she had relinquished her ability to transform. Nevertheless it wasn't a complete impossibility for her to know that, although for her sake she desperately wanted to maintain the secrecy of her precognition even if it resulted in more pain for her. Usagi's main fear, however, was that the woman had made a very good deduction, one that led closer to the truth that she desperately wanted to conceal.

"So, you either you envisioned your own capture and willingly went to your own demise without putting up the smallest fight like a sniveling coward, or there is another reason you don't have the brooch," Sazaratha said in a combination of pensiveness and disdain. "And given what I've heard about you, you're anything but a coward but too brazen for your own good, so I'll have to assume there was another reason."

"I-it's…" Usagi started to say in a wavering voice but was interrupted.

"And remember what I said about being honest, or you may not wake up next time."

The warning resonated clearly within Usagi's mind. She immediately recalled the debilitating torture that ultimately knocked her unconscious and wanted nothing like that to happen to her again. At the same time she had been backed into a logical corner where it was almost impossible to explain away the absence of her brooch without adverse repercussions. She envisioned two paths from her current point, neither of which was good. The first was that she would reveal her capability to have occasional visions of the future, but use that to frame a story that would exclude the fact that she surrendered her brooch under duress. Obviously, if Sazaratha saw through that lie—the likelihood being high—then her suffering indubitably would increase. The second path was just as unattractive, and that was to disclose the truth that she was forced by her fellow senshi to give up her brooch but to decidedly not reveal the exact reason why. It fit with what they already knew about the friction between her and the other girls. However, it was just as risky as the former strategy. What would they do to her if they knew she couldn't fight back and that she had no expectation of rescue? In her mind she reasoned the response may be the same no matter which story she gave. There was no leniency for deceit, but there was no leniency for honesty either.

"I gave them the brooch because they demanded it," Usagi replied resignedly.

"I see…" Sazaratha said with a slight easing of her otherwise derisive tone. "They… took your brooch from you. But why would they do that?"

"Because they didn't want me to fight with them anymore."

"And why would they think so poorly of you as to exclude you from their group?"

"I… I don't know," Usagi said wearily.

"Hmmm…" Sazaratha muttered as slowly she walked around Usagi's floating body. "Your fellow senshi completely abandon you in their civilian forms, and then they prevent you from being able to defend yourself, thus leading to your current state." She paused momentarily and ogled the girl's long pigtails before continuing more determinedly. "There has to be a reason for them doing that, one that you're trying to conceal, don't you think?"

"No," Usagi said as forcefully as she could. "I honestly don't know why they did that to me. I don't know why they abandoned me."

"Well… _if_ you're being honest, then I almost feel sorry for you that they made such a poor decision," Sazaratha replied in a voice that almost sounded compassionate. However, any stray thoughts within Usagi's mind that her interrogator cared about her were soundly squashed with her next sentence. "The bad news for you is I know you weren't being honest. You should know by now the punishment for lying to me!"

Usagi steeled herself as best as she could for the onslaught she expected to arrive at any second. Sazaratha, for her part, was just as eager to deliver the agonizing blow as the princess was frightened to receive it. However, the anticipated attack never came due to a last-second reprieve in the form of a request from the now-irritated woman's former boss.

"_Sazaratha, hold your attack." _ Those words Sazaratha heard within her mind came from her telepathic link with Kunzite.

"_Why?"_ she replied with frustration. _"This bitch lied to me, and you know I hate that."_

"_Maybe so, but you'll have to live with that for now as the princess needs all the energy she can get."_

"_Heh… I thought you were no longer my superior. What right do you have now to go throwing commands at me?"_

"_It's not from me. It's from Beryl. I believe she wants to see the princess."_

"_Really? Before I can finish questioning the princess?"_ Her tone was remarkably innocent.

"_I don't know the answer to that question,"_ Kunzite admitted. _"All I know is she wants to see her soon. In any case, keep that in mind. Don't lose your cool and start attacking the princess for every little attempt at defiance."_

"_So says you. Don't tell me you don't want payback for the beating she gave you."_

"_She's in our possession. As such, I already have my revenge,"_ Kunzite replied coldly.

"_Fine. But don't blame me if she starts feeling emboldened because you let her off the hook."_

"_I guarantee you, the last thing she will feel is encouragement,"_ he said harshly before terminating the link.

Sazaratha huffed before returning her attention to the frightened blond girl before her. "On second thought, I think I'll be nice and let this one slide," she said with clear annoyance. "But don't you dare think about crossing me or lying to me again. Do you understand me?"

"Yes," Usagi mumbled. Inwardly she was relieved that she never received the punishment she fully intended to endure, but at the same time she was frightened beyond her wits at the mere thought of what could have been.

"Now, I want to change subjects and ask you about something that's been bothering me since this morning." Her tone was surprisingly casual to Usagi's ears. Yet, the piercing glare that the older blonde gave the younger belied any semblance of informality. "Where did you think you were moving to in such short notice?"

"_There's no way I'm giving that up,"_ Usagi thought as a strange feeling of courage filled her. _"Everything I'm fighting for would be destroyed if I did that. Everything."_ Following that mindset, she responded to her captor's question with utter silence.

"Well, answer me!" Sazaratha exclaimed in rage. It took tremendous discipline on her part to not strike the defenseless girl. The last thing she wanted to do at this juncture was to upset Beryl by directly contravening her explicit orders. After all, she had the queen to thank for the promotion she received that afternoon and the enhanced powers that accompanied it. Doing something silly in response to the princess's stubbornness would ruin everything she had accomplished thus far.

"_No,"_ Usagi said within her mind, but did not utter aloud.

"Come on! It's a simple question! Why won't you just answer it already?" she said condescendingly while ever so slowly leaning closer to Usagi, only stopping when she was inches away from the girl's frozen body. Just because she couldn't touch the princess didn't mean she couldn't come close to doing so.

"_I don't care what you do to me anymore,"_ Usagi thought as she struggled for air. _"There is no way I'll let you hurt the people I love. I'll die before I let that happen."_

Sazaratha sighed in frustration as she eventually retreated from the princess before the girl inadvertently received the death she was willing to accept. "I see you're not going to answer," she said resignedly before regaining her scornful tone. "That doesn't matter anymore. We have other ways of getting that information."

"_Hopefully that involves you being led all across Japan."_ She would have given a wry smile if she had sufficient command of her muscles. Instead she was content with the knowledge that, finally, she had won one of her encounters with her ruthless interrogator. The idea that Sazaratha had an ulterior reason for going easy on her never crossed her mind.

"Anyway, I think it's time for another break. I'm sure you'll enjoy that," Sazaratha said sardonically as she gradually walked away from her fellow blonde and departed the chamber. "There _will_ be more questions, I'm sure of that, but it won't be me asking them next time."

"_Wait, if not you, then who?"_ Usagi pondered mentally as the combined burning and stinging sensation faded, replaced by the background of negative energy to which she had since become accustomed. _"Whoever it is, I hope it's someone not nearly as painful to be around."_

—|1|**2**|3|4|5|—

Saeko stood behind the large metal door leading to the rooftop helipad and peered at the large blue and white helicopter that was perched on the other side. She could easily hear the whooshing sounds of the air being pushed about by the rotating blades as it sat there in waiting. If everything went well with the transfer, as she desperately hoped it did, then the pilots wouldn't have to wait for much longer.

"_I absolutely hope nothing happened to delay or stop the transfer," _Saeko anxiously thought as her gaze was fixed on the helicopter and another, much larger door leading to the pad. _"I'm pretty sure they shouldn't be suspicious of anything, not at this stage."_

The large door on the other side of the helipad slowly lifted open just in time to assuage the doctor's growing fears. The first of three gurneys was wheeled out to the threshold of the door, surrounded by medical staff and hospital security personnel. She could determine from the equipment attached to the stretcher that Kenji was the first patient they were loading onto the helicopter. She continued to gaze at the activity through the thick pane of glass with a small smile of relief on her lips that progressively grew larger.

"They should be just fine now," sounded a husky, low-pitched voice behind the doctor.

"How did you know I'd be here, Daichi-san?" Saeko asked softly, her eyes still fixated on the scene on the other side of the glass.

"It was just a hunch." He took a small step toward her and tenderly placed a hand on her shoulder. "They are close friends of yours?"

She tersely nodded. "Their daughter was a dear friend of my Ami and helped bring her out of the shell she'd been in since Keitarou and I divorced several years ago," she whispered sadly. "I've grown rather close to her parents in the several months since our daughters became acquainted."

"I see," he said understandingly as he stared caringly at the younger doctor. "But what I don't understand is why you'd want to transfer them, and clandestinely at that. I would imagine that you'd want to care for them yourself."

A halting sigh passed through Saeko's lips as she finally turned her head toward her friend. "I doubt you'll understand or even believe me if I told you."

"You should know me better than that. There's a lot I'm capable of understanding, especially from you," Daichi replied with a small, wry grin on his lips that elicited a similar smile from his companion.

"Maybe so, but this would be far greater and far more incredulous than anything else and I don't want to get you as involved as I am." She dropped her head and turned her eyes down at the dull concrete, accentuating her sullen tone.

"Whatever it is that's troubling you, Saeko-san, I want you to know that I'll be there to help you in any way I can," he said resolutely.

"I know."

"So, you trust me enough to help you?"

She lifted her head and gazed at the man she considered almost a second father. "I trust you. I absolutely trust you but…" she said as her voice started to waver. "I'm just very concerned about what would happen to you."

"I'm a hardier man than you're giving me credit for," he said with a wink that momentarily diffused Saeko's mounting tension. "Besides, if I didn't think there was something extraordinary going on and if I wasn't willing to help you, I wouldn't have processed those illegitimate transfer forms."

"True," she allowed herself to admit with a faint, nervous laugh. "I guess you do have a little bit to lose as well." She turned her head to glance through the window in time to see the last of the three being loaded onto the helicopter.

"Now, I don't want to push you but, whenever you feel you can tell me what's going on, then I'm all ears," he said warmly.

"Thanks, Daichi-san," she said as she stepped forward and allowed herself to be taken into a light embrace by the older man.

"Don't mention it," he whispered as he released the hug and took a peek out of the window. The helicopter gradually took to the air and turned away from the hospital and toward Kyoto with its precious cargo. "Now, I hear you're on vacation for a while," he said once the din from the helicopter faded.

"Yes. Nominally for two months, although I don't know how long it really will take."

"Going anywhere special?" he asked innocently.

She slowly shook her head. "I'm following them to Kyoto," she eventually said mournfully as her shoulders slumped. "I'll be staying with my parents and looking over them in the meantime."

"Not really much of a vacation then, is it?"

"No," she said disappointedly.

"What about Ami? Is she going with you or is she staying here for school?"

That was the time that his intimate knowledge of the venerable doctor served Daichi well. He immediately sensed a sudden burst of melancholy and consternation from Saeko even though outwardly she remained stoic. She took a deep breath to settle her emotions and to think about how to respond to his question. However, he spoke before she could say anything.

"I take it that something bad has happened to her, right?" he said carefully, his dark-brown eyes searching hers for any hint. She slowly nodded her head, but remained silent as tears began to well at the base of her eyelids.

"She's… she's gone, isn't she?" he asked more sympathetically. "She's gone, and it involves the people you're scared to tell me about, right?"

Saeko nodded once again and allowed the tears to fall freely down her face. Somehow he was able to deduce Ami's death without her giving any explicit details. She didn't mind that he knew that much about her circumstances as she felt she would have told him eventually. However, even in her grief it relieved her that she didn't have to reveal her daughter's secret identity or, more importantly, that of her friend. Things were still too chaotic to let slip such valuable information, even to the man she deeply trusted and to whom she owed so much. So she left it at that as she willingly allowed Daichi to envelop her in a much tighter and compassionate hug than before.

"I'm so sorry to hear that," he whispered as he softly ran a hand over the top of her head to comfort her.

"It's fine," she mumbled into his shoulder. "I'm… I'm fine."

"No, you're not," Daichi replied delicately. "I won't let you suffer alone like this."

"I'm not alone," she whispered. "You're here with me."

Daichi maintained his embrace of the depressed woman for several minutes as she sobbed uncontrollably. He knew exactly what she was experiencing, having lost his elder daughter in an auto accident and, before that, his son and his wife in childbirth. Tragedy was something with which he was woefully too familiar, and it drove him to do whatever he could to help others avoid similar fates. The fact that Saeko reminded him so much of his late daughter was one of the reasons he was so drawn to her. If there was anyone he wanted to help in any way he could it was her. It utterly broke his heart that the woman who he cared for so much had to suffer the immense pain of losing her daughter and there was nothing he could do about it.

"Thank you, Daichi-san," she said as her tears slowed and she found the strength to gently push herself away from him. "Thank you so much, for everything. I hope I have an opportunity to tell you what's happening and why I'm so afraid for you and for them. It's just… I'm not prepared to do so right now."

"I fully understand," he said with a hint of disappointment, but overall he was happy that she was beginning to escape her misery. "I'll be here whenever you are ready."

Saeko nodded as the two walked away from the door and headed for the bank of elevators. She whisked away a few stray tears from her cheeks as he pushed the button and they waited for one of the doors to open. A few seconds later they walked into an empty cab and began their slow decent.

"You have no idea how grateful I am for your help and support for me over all this time," she said more forcefully and with sincere gratitude when the elevator stopped on the fourth floor.

"I can't help it." He turned a small but very warm smile to her as he exited the elevator.

"I'll certainly keep in touch with you while I'm in Kyoto," she said assuredly.

The doors started to close. "I wouldn't expect anything less of you."

Saeko leaned against the back wall of the elevator cab and smiled while she lightly hugged herself. If she ever returned to Juuban she swore the first thing she would do is find him and treat him to the best dinner she could put together as a humongous thank-you present.

—|1|2|**3**|4|5|—

Kunzite sat at one of the chairs in the planning room and sighed in discontent as he sifted through some of the papers scattered across the table. None of them were helping his situation. He knew all of the data those papers provided by heart, but none of them could answer his pressing question. None of the random sheets could give him the information that her majesty desired.

"_Why couldn't she have decided to ask that of me earlier,"_ he mused as he lackadaisically tossed one of the papers back onto the table. _"It would have made my life so much simpler."_

A few seconds later Zoisite appeared in the room with a flash of gold light that slightly startled Kunzite. The youngest general sat in one of the vacant seats and stared at his glum older counterpart, his dark-green eyes locked on the man he considered an older brother.

"I can feel there's something bothering you," Zoisite said with uncharacteristic sympathy.

Kunzite kept his eyes focused on a random spot on the wall in front of him. "I just was assigned a mission from Beryl to locate the princess's family and capture them."

Zoisite's excitement at the reply provided a deep contrast. "Well, shouldn't that be rather easy? I mean, we already know where they are. We can just go in and grab them."

"It's not that simple," Kunzite said as he finally turned a forlorn gaze to his comrade. He took a deep breath to calm himself before speaking in a slow, steady tone. "The princess is very smart and very cunning, despite what others may think of her. Moreover, her main motivation is to protect her loved ones."

"Which is why there was so much activity at her house with the moving trucks," Zoisite interjected.

"Exactly. So, it's clear that she's willing to do whatever she can to protect them and to remove them from danger. Even if it results in harm to her or kills her."

"What does that have to do with her family though? Aren't they still at the hospital?" Zoisite asked as confusion contorted his face.

Kunzite shrugged. "I don't know. Something tells me that they will no longer be there. She's too smart to only give the appearance of moving them without actually doing the deed. And the complexity of what you saw from her house tells me that she took great care with even the tiniest details of her plan."

"But they may not have gone very far," Zoisite exclaimed in an attempt to motivate the senior general. "It's only been a few hours at most since we've taken the princess. And keep in mind, it takes a while for the hospital to make any transfers, and we'll likely be able to figure out from them where they're being sent."

Kunzite slowly shook his head. "A few hours is a very long time," he responded astutely despite his shroud of dejection. "A person can easily leave the country within a few hours time given the modern-day modes of transportation." He paused momentarily, after which a self-depreciating chuckle slipped through his lips. "I wouldn't underestimate the princess when it comes to things that are extremely dear to her. I learned that first hand."

"I'm not underestimating her. I'm just thinking optimistically about this," Zoisite said defensively. "Beryl must have a good reason for capturing them, and I doubt she'll order an impossible mission at this stage."

"Maybe so," Kunzite said resignedly. "But what I don't understand is what purpose it would serve when she already has the princess. Furthermore, she makes the command without considering that we're no longer dealing with a klutzy idiot who seemed to be luckier than good. She's changed ever since her guardians abandoned her, and she's far more dangerous now."

"Yeah, but as you said, we _have her_. What can she possibly do when she can't even move?"

"She can severely frustrate us, as she has done during her interrogation," Kunzite answered calmly. "Beryl seems to think that, since Sazaratha failed to kill the princess's family, they're more valuable to her alive. However, the unsuccessful attempt to kill them only hardened the princess and made her more willing to suffer on their accord. She flatly refused to answer Sazaratha's question about where her family was."

"Wow…" Zoisite uttered in genuine surprise. "That's a brave move considering that demon absolutely hates it when she's ignored or, as she would put it, 'disrespected.'"

"Very true. I shudder to think about what would have happened to the princess had Beryl not given us strict orders to not harm her, and if I hadn't intervened and stopped Sazaratha's inevitable attack. Anyway, her stonewalling lead to Beryl's request, but I'm still unsure if it's a wise thing to ask of us."

Zoisite remained silent for a few seconds before releasing a light, yet sarcastic, laugh. "If you think our queen is unwise to assign the mission to you, then I'll go ahead and take it and the inevitable rewards when I come back with them," he said smugly.

"Go ahead." Kunzite's nonchalance shocked the younger general, who had expected a completely different reaction. "I'll stay here and think of something more useful to do with my time."

"Heh! You'll regret not being more proactive."

"Maybe so, but I doubt it."

Zoisite huffed before disappearing from the room with a burst of gold light and a wisp of black smoke. Kunzite shook his head and lifted himself from the chair.

"_Sometimes he's just too impulsive and overconfident for his own good,"_ he thought before departing the room for his personal quarters.

—|1|2|3|**4**|5|—

The first thing that Artemis could see upon opening his eyes was a solid yet featureless mass of gray. That dull color filled his vision and seemed to stretch to infinity in every direction he could turn his eyes, which admittedly was not very far. It was utterly depressing to look at, yet at the same time it surprised him as the last thing he expected to see was anything at all. Maybe it was only a sick nightmare and he would soon awaken from it. Or even worse, it was possible that the fate he thought befell him that late morning actually occurred. After all, how could he conceivably know what to expect to see and feel after dying?

"_Is this what death truly feels like?"_

He sluggishly lifted himself to his feet, and at that moment he could feel a sharp pain emanate from his paws. It was the stinging, prickling sensation that arose from the first use of a limb after a long time. Yet he knew his discomfort was also a blessing as it answered his unspoken question with a resounding _no_. He would not feel such annoying aching if he were dead. Nor would he hear and feel his heart beating so loudly within his chest or see the vapor escape his mouth once he finally started to stir and breath more heavily. The harsh growling of his stomach as an unusually voracious hunger suddenly manifested itself was the final clue that dissuaded him against the idea that he was deceased. However, the answer merely created another, far more pressing, question.

"_Where am I?"_ he pondered as he slowly turned his body to survey his surroundings.

Everywhere he turned his eyes he could only see the same dreary gray. The only break in the monotony was when he looked at his own snow white fur. It began to confuse the cat as much as it disheartened him. What was he supposed to do? Where could he go, if anywhere at all? The scenery offered no clue whatsoever to those questions. If there was one thing that he did know, it was that he couldn't just sit there and wait for something to happen.

"_I guess I could probably walk around until I see something different,"_ he reasoned. _"Maybe I'll find a wall or something that I can follow, although I'll have to be careful as I can't tell the sky apart from the floor."_

That was a reasonable concern, one that stuck in his mind as he took very slow and careful steps. The floor was solid enough, but it was the exact same gray as everything he could see around and above him. If there were a wall in front of him he wouldn't know until he slammed into it. Similarly, if there was a hole in the floor the only way he could detect it was when his paw felt nothingness. Running into a wall may have been painful depending on how quickly he was moving, but falling into a hole very well could have been lethal, if not from the impact after the drop then by trapping him and leaving him to starve to death. Given that he was not in a normal environment he figured there would be no help if he made a terrible mistake.

A very long time elapsed from the moment he opened his eyes to the point where he found himself beginning to tire. He couldn't be sure if minutes had passed or hours. At no point in time did he find a wall or some other object in the flat expanse, but at the same time he did not encounter any pitfalls. He knew he could not afford to relax, but at the same time he tried to contemplate just what had happened to him. The place where he began his mental investigation was the last thing he remembered before ending up in that awfully dismal space.

"_Who was that awfully dark woman, and where on Earth did she send me? I'm certain she had to be part of the Dark Kingdom, but I don't recall anyone that looked or felt like her. She definitely was more than a mere youma, but she's not one of the Shitennou either. Yet, she did seem to know a lot about me. About all of us, actually."_

He stopped walking as the realization came to him that any further progress in that direction would be fruitless. His eyes initially swept the area immediately around him before he peered off as far into the distance as he could manage. There was absolutely no difference between his new location in that seemingly infinite space and where he started. It would have been completely demoralizing to him if the spark of a latent memory hadn't come to his rescue.

"_This… this feels familiar,"_ he thought as he closed his eyes, the images they captured useless to him. _"Where have I seen something similar to this?"_ Several moments of intense reflection elapsed before he found the answer to his question. When that solution arrived his eyes reflexively shot open.

"That's it!" he exclaimed excitedly, almost cheerfully as a matter of fact.

He had good reason to be excited. He had the 'eureka' moment that potentially could save him and allow him to exit the quandary within which he was stuck. All he had to do now was hope that his intuition as to what to do next was correct. He cleared his throat with a loud cough, turned his head up into the sky and yelled as resoundingly as he could muster:

"I know you're there!"

He then waited for a response, if there was to be one. Fortunately, he didn't have to wait long.

"It took you long enough," sounded a familiar female voice with a haughty tone. "I was about to get really bored."

"Where the hell am I?" Artemis asked angrily.

She chuckled. "You do remember I said that you would die a slow and painful death if you lied to me, right?"

"Where am I?" he repeated even more fiercely and, given that he still was trapped and she apparently was the only one who could free him, bravely.

"Oh, come on, Artemis. Calm down already," she replied mockingly.

"You can't keep me here!"

"Actually, I can keep you here for as long as I want," the woman quickly replied with a wry tone. "Considering you are unable to escape without my help, I would strongly suggest that you sit there and not do anything stupid. Not that you can do anything at all, but you know what I mean."

Artemis took one look at his hauntingly familiar surroundings before resigning himself to the fact that she absolutely was correct. He couldn't do anything at all, especially escape. He was at the complete mercy of his captor.

"Okay," he said calmly as he rested his body on the cold floor in defeat.

"Good," the woman replied, the grin across her lips unseen by the helpless cat. "Now, you may wonder why you're still alive when I promised to kill you. Well… it turns out that I still need you alive, and it's not merely because you have information that I need."

"_What is she planning to do with me,"_ Artemis anxiously thought as he remained perfectly still and listened.

"However, before I continue talking about what I'm going to do with you, I want you to see something."

Suddenly the room drastically changed, and instead of being trapped within an infinite expanse of gray Artemis was within a room with a very definite size. The walls were gray but darker and constructed of stone, as was the platform upon which he was standing. Every part of the construction of the room was peculiar, but what caught his interest the most was a translucent purple sphere that seemingly contained a person that he knew all too well.

"What I'm showing you, in a way, is our newest prized possession."

Artemis slowly crawled closer to the sphere and the being suspended within it. With every step closer he could feel a stinging pain wash over his body, yet he pushed on. He was determined to verify whether or not his eyes deceived him. When he was a few feet away and could more clearly see into the sphere he knew very quickly that he was correct. At the same time he intently wished that he was dead wrong.

"Usagi…" he whispered in shock.

"Yes, that's your cherished princess that I have captured," the woman said proudly. "Well, a facsimile of her at the very least. I can't let you see her for real, obviously, so this is the best I can do."

"This can't be," Artemis uttered dejectedly.

"Oh, but it is, and soon she will meet her demise." She then sighed disappointedly in a way that somehow piqued Artemis's curiosity. "Well, she _should_ have been dead already, but _somebody_ wants to keep her around for way longer than necessary. And you don't have to be a genius to figure out that's not a smart thing to do. So this is where you come in."

"And what do you want to do with me?"

"You're my insurance policy. If things go wrong and somehow your princess is rescued, you're going to be the one that allows me to find her again."

"And what if I refuse, which I guarantee you I will," he said with resounding defiance.

"Don't worry about that, as you have no choice in the matter," she replied forcefully and with a hint of revulsion in her tone. "Furthermore, you will not remember any part of this conversation anyway, so I wouldn't get so worked up about it if I were you."

"I'm not going to—"

Before Artemis could finish his sentence the entire room transformed once again, and Usagi, the sphere within which she was held, and everything else surrounding him disappeared with a blindingly bright flash of white light. In its place was complete darkness. He tried to move about, or to even turn his head, but any physical activity seemed impossible. Furthermore, his mind felt incredibly numb and he found it difficult to think about anything or to maintain his consciousness. After a few seconds he completely succumbed to the feeling of nothingness.

Just as soon as he blacked out he felt a very force that shook him back into consciousness. Despite his body's strong reluctance he willed his eyes to open, and upon doing so he could see nothing but flat gray that completely surrounded him. It depressed and confused him all at the same time. He began to ponder his own existence, to ask if he was dead. Suddenly a woman's voice boomed from above and startled him.

"Hello, Artemis," she said calmly. "Do you know where you are?"

"No," the perplexed cat replied as he slowly shook his head.

"In that case I'll tell you. As my prisoner you're current location is a specially designed holding cell from which there is no escape."

"_That's right… she's that woman from before,"_ Artemis thought in horror as he finally recognized the voice.

"Now, how pleasant your stay is depends greatly on your level of cooperation," she said evenly and with only the slightest trace of disdain. "If you honestly answer my questions, you may very well find a way out of your miserable trap. However, if you refuse to answer me or lie to me even one time, I assure you I will not be merciful. Do you understand me?"

Remembering the absolute agony he suffered prior to ending up in the vast expanse of nothingness compelled him to not put up much of a fight. "Yes," he said resignedly.

"Good. Now, I will come back soon, but before I go I have one question for you. The answer will determine how well the rest of the questioning will go, for your sake that is, so you should be careful how you answer it. Anyway, what is the last thing that you remember before you woke up here?"

Artemis hung his head and closed his eyes as he slipped deep into thought. He knew with crystal clarity the very last thing he experienced before he woke up to a sea of gray. The problem was how he could possibly answer the question without getting into trouble. After all, it was the fact that he didn't have a suitable answer for her question that resulted in his agony and eventual capture. At the same time he knew he had to tell her exactly what she knew to be true. He utterly feared the consequences that awaited him if he didn't.

"I remember being asked, by you, how the other senshi and I decided to tell Mercury's mother about the death of her daughter," he said timidly.

"That's right," she said patronizingly. "And do you remember the answer the answer you gave me?"

His mounting fear was palpable. "I… I didn't have one."

"That's also correct, although, fortunately for you, I'm not going to press you for that answer… yet," the woman hauntingly replied. "Anyway, I will be back soon so don't run off anywhere."

—|1|2|3|4|**5**|—

"_That worked much better than I expected,"_ Sazaratha said smugly as she leaned back into her chair and away from the multiple holographic monitors of the control panel with a broad, sinister smile on her face.

"Ah, there you are," Kunzite nonchalantly mumbled as he unhurriedly walked into the chamber. His eyes narrowed slightly in a combination of confusion and suspicion. "Why are you in here? And what are you doing with that thing?"

She held back a wry grin as she deftly swiveled around to face her former superior. "I was checking in on my newest prisoner."

"I think you mean _our_ newest prisoner, as you're not doing all of this yourself," Kunzite corrected, drawing a scowl from the blonde. "And why did you put him in there, I ask you once again?" As he questioned Sazaratha he peered over her shoulder at the three-dimensional figure of a dejected white cat meandering aimlessly across the drab gray scenery and shook his head.

"I'm just using it to enhance the interrogation," she said with a hint of bitterness. "There's no need to baby me, especially now that I'm your equal."

"You're getting to be as bad as Zoisite," he muttered. "As much as I detest the followers of the princess I don't believe in their needless torture."

"Then what do you call what we're doing with the princess?" she asked sardonically. "Isn't that just as much torture as what you're saying I'm doing to Artemis?"

"That's a special case. We needed something specially designed to curtail her powers," he feebly replied as he averted his eyes from the forceful glare his counterpart directed at him. "Anyway, Beryl wants to see us one more time before she goes to see the princess."

"Tell her I'll be there shortly," she said curtly.

"If you want to do so, you may tell her that yourself. I'm not your messenger," he said in annoyance as he turned his back to her and headed for the door. "And you should know by now that she doesn't like to be kept waiting."

"By the way, how did your mission turn out?" she asked snidely as she intensified her glower. "I have on good authority that you were ordered by Beryl to find and capture the princess's family. Given that you're here right now, you must have found them and brought them back already, right? I mean, you should know by now that Beryl doesn't like her orders to be ignored."

"I figure you already know that I handed the mission to Zoisite."

"Yes, and I would think that it was a foolish thing to do if the mission itself wasn't silly in its own right," she matter-of-factly responded. "There's no reason we need to go after them when we already have the princess. Anything beyond this is a waste of our time."

"That's what I told Zoisite, but he was so insistent upon going after them that I let him take the mission," he said with a bit of a disappointed sigh.

"Do you know why Beryl wants them?"

"I figured she'd tell us when we meet with her," he replied with a shrug of his shoulders. "She has to have some sensible reason for doing this."

Sazaratha snorted and imperceptibly shook her head upon hearing Kunzite's last sentence. "So you say," she mumbled under her breath as she stood from her chair to accompany the general on his trip to the royal chamber. Her intuition, which at times had been spotty, told her this meeting, unlike the last one, would be a lot less enjoyable. With the new developments that occurred during the prior few minutes it was very unlikely her intuition was wrong.


	32. Meeting of the Two Sovereigns

**Chapter 32: Meeting of the Two Sovereigns**

Similar to every other room within the milieu of the Dark Kingdom, the chamber within which Kunzite and Sazaratha attentively stood was extremely dim and cold. They didn't particularly mind the lack of lighting or the frosty temperatures as it eminently suited their natures. However, the queen's royal chamber was far darker than any other room but for two, and the amount of negative energy that flowed about the hall was immense. It was a unique mix of Metalia's wondrous energy that spilled over from the adjacent room and Beryl's own aura. Merely standing within that room energized the two, although Sazaratha was stimulated far more by the energy of her original leader, the one all of them hoped to revive, than that of the person she now followed. She, more than anyone else present, wanted to see the end of the war and the reemergence of Metalia's glory.

The deep purple and red light filtered through the air and scattered off the rough stone walls of the chamber, casting everyone within an ominous glow. That light was emitted from a singular source that hovered only a few feet in front of the person who to whom all followers of the Dark Kingdom gave their allegiance. She peeked her red eyes over her sphere and scowled at the two upon whom she bestowed the title of supreme general. The frown gave Kunzite shivers as he was well aware of what an angry and disappointed Queen Beryl could do even to one of her own. All he needed to do was to recall his memories of Jadeite's demise.

"Kunzite," Beryl started with a tone of irritation, "I am aware that you refused my order to locate and bring to me the princess's civilian family."

The silver-haired general genuflected before the woman in a combination of respect and fear, the latter emotion reflected in his hesitant voice. "Your highness, I did not refuse the order. It was just that Zoisite felt he was more capable of completing it, and so I allowed him to pursue your will."

"Why would you do that?" Beryl retorted. "You are very well aware that I choose specific individuals for specific missions for a reason. I didn't give the mission to Zoisite specifically because he is too impetuous. I didn't want the outcome of the mission hinging on his personality."

"I understand, your highness, and I deeply apologize for not doing the task myself." He bowed even more deeply than before.

"As you were, Kunzite," Beryl said after several tense seconds. "There's not much you can do about that now."

Sazaratha took a half-step closer to the throne and the tall, stately woman sitting upon it. "If you don't mind my asking, your highness—" the last two words escaped her lips with great difficulty— "what was the point of capturing the princess's family when we already have the princess herself?"

Beryl turned her eyes to the being she knew was something other than the blond woman that stood before her and glowered. She had promoted Sazaratha to a rank equal to that of the Shitennou because of her efforts in locating and capturing the princess. She then let Sazaratha interrogate the princess as she knew it was one of a few specialties the being possessed that she desperately needed. However, it did not mean that she fully trusted the being who originally worked directly for Metalia. She viewed the promotion more as a necessity borne from the lack of higher-level leaders among her forces than an endorsement of the mysterious creature.

"You will see quite soon why I need her family, Sazaratha," an exasperated Beryl said. "I'm fully aware of our present situation, and I'm just as eager as all of you to end this. But even with the princess as she is there is no guarantee that we can retrieve the one thing we need from her."

"But how can we get the crystal when she no longer has her brooch?" Sazaratha pointedly asked.

"I have my ways," Beryl curtly replied. She turned her eyes to Kunzite despite continuing to address the blonde. "Anyway, I need you to prepare the room for the contingency that Zoisite fails at the task he was so keen to perform."

Sazaratha felt a slight chill over her body as she knew exactly which room the queen referenced. It was the very same room she was using for her own purposes. Somehow she had to find another way to control her new 'pet' and unwilling minion.

"C-certainly, your highness," she said as she gave the queen a short bow before hastily exiting the chamber.

"Now Kunzite, before I go to give the princess a little visit, I want you to give her this," Beryl said more calmly as she produced a small, red, gem-shaped amulet that was attached to a gold chain. "Also, I want you to get rid of the blinders and to make sure she's strong enough to move about. I will not be speaking with her while she's trapped in that device."

A pall of worry fell over him. "Are you sure that—"

"It will be perfectly fine, Kunzite," she interjected. "Besides, there is not much that she'll be able to do as long as I'm right next to her and you're close by."

"Very well, your highness." He bowed once again and turned to leave.

Before the general could depart the queen's throne room a bright flash of gold light erupted in a distant region of the large, circular chamber. That sudden eruption marked the return of a sullen and disappointed Zoisite.

"Ah, Zoisite," Beryl remarked with a tone that was remarkably close to cheerful. "Just the person I wanted to see."

"Your highness," Zoisite said as he walked toward the throne. He stopped a few feet away and bowed deeply before his queen.

"I realize you went to find the princess's civilian family. What was the outcome of that search?" she asked expectantly.

"I couldn't find any trace of them at the hospital where they were being treated," he answered dejectedly. "I checked every single room on every single floor of the place. Twice, even. I did find that they were transferred for specific medical tests, but when I went to those rooms they weren't there."

"I understand," Beryl said calmly, shocking Zoisite as he expected a more angry response. "It seems to make sense given the hasty attempt to move that Sazaratha detected. The princess has protected her loved ones well."

"So, what are you going to do now?" Kunzite asked.

"I'm going to go through with the contingency plan, of course," she said with a slight frown on her lips. "It's not the course of action I wanted to take, but I think with a little bit of work it can be just as effective." She momentarily paused as she looked at Zoisite and then back at Kunzite. "Kunzite, after you give the princess that amulet, I want you to collect all the information you have on the princess's family and join Sazaratha in the control room. Now, hurry!"

"As you wish, your highness," Kunzite said deferentially with one more bow before departing the chamber.

Beryl then directed her stare at Zoisite. "Yes, your highness?" he asked in response to the unspoken question.

"Where did you place the sapping stone containing the soul of Sailor Mercury?"

"I have it in my possession," he tentatively answered with a slight widening of his eyes as he was unsure why the question was asked.

"Very good." Her nod was slow yet accepting. "Keep a tight hold of it as we may need that later. Anyway, I want you to go out and keep an eye on the other senshi. Don't engage them right now. Just monitor their activities and let us know immediately if anything interesting happens."

"Aye, your highness," he said as he sharply bowed. He prepared to teleport out of the chamber but halted when he noticed Beryl hailing him.

"One more thing, Zoisite," she said evenly. "If you happen to see the Earth's prince, let me know about it immediately."

"That I will do, your highness," he said forcefully as he disappeared from the chamber in a cloud of black smoke.

Beryl stood from her throne as the slight curve of a wry grin spread across her lips. _"Endymion, maybe this time you will understand that we belong together,"_ she thought as she strode purposefully out of the throne room and toward her personal quarters to prepare for her first visit with the princess she exceedingly loathed.

—|1|**2**|3|4|5|6|—

Sazaratha huffed as she walked back into the dimly lit control room that adjusted the environment within what the Dark Kingdom called the Altered Reality Chamber. She did not anticipate that her boss would want to use the room for whatever she wanted to do with the princess. As such, the room was occupied by a lonely Artemis trapped within a field of gray. She had promised the cat that he would be released from the room only if he satisfactorily answered her questions. However, that plan would have to change, and quickly. She slumped into the chair and stared at the hologram showing the poor, confused cat while she searched her mind for an answer to her conundrum. After a few seconds she found one. It wasn't one that she necessarily wanted, but it was one that would work, and that was all that mattered.

"Hello, Artemis," she said softly into the microphone. Even at that low volume her voice bellowed through the featureless expanse. "I've decided, after a few moments of intense reflection, that it may not be best for you to be stuck in such a pitiful existence. So, I'm going to transfer you to someplace much more… hospitable."

Artemis's response was one of combined guarded optimism and fear. _"I finally get to leave this tortuous prison,"_ he thought, _"but I'm not sure what she means when she says 'hospitable.' Knowing them, it's probably something far worse than just the nothingness I'm in right now."_

The moment he finished his thought the entire room turned a blindingly bright white. His ears were perked by a loud roar and his fur was ruffled by a cold, brisk wind that swept through the chamber. He could feel the ground tremble beneath his feet and bits of rock and dust splatter against his skin and mottle his pristine white fur. When the intense light faded and his eyes could once again perceive his environment he was flabbergasted by the stark difference from only a few seconds ago. No longer was he surrounded by an infinite stretch of gray. Instead he was in a highly confined room delimited by dark brown walls constructed of solid rock. Large windows allowed light to filter into the small room, but they were too high for him to reach by jumping. And indeed the room was quite small at only five feet square, enough to induce severe claustrophobia in even the tiny Usagi. There was no obvious way to enter or exit the room except for the window. In other words it was just as much of a trap as his previous location but at the other extreme of the continuum.

"How do you like it?" She received no reply from the cat to her mocking query as he was still stunned by the abrupt change. "Well, if you don't find that to your liking, I can find something else for you."

A flash of gold light startled Artemis as he was busy searching for some way out of the dungeon. He lifted his head to peer toward the origin of the illumination and immediately froze. In one corner of the room was the one person he never wanted to see in his lifetime if he could help it. Of course, that option was never up to him.

"You don't look so happy to see me, Artemis," Sazaratha said with a wide smirk on her lips. "Don't you know how much that hurts me?"

"Stay away from me!" Artemis yelled as he tried to move as far away from the pale blonde as he could. Unfortunately it was impossible to maneuver in a room that small.

"Don't worry. It will only take a second," she said as she leaped at the cat, grasping him firmly in her arms. He struggled mightily, but all further resistance ceased when she began to stroke his back.

"_No, not again,"_ he thought as he felt the complete loss of control of his limbs.

"There!" she exclaimed cheerfully. She stared at the paralyzed cat with narrowed indigo eyes. "I did say it wouldn't take long. And now for the final touch…"

She began to softly stroke Artemis's head, causing the cat's eyes to slowly glaze over as he slowly slipped into unconsciousness. A small smile of approval crept onto her lips she laid the limp body of the cat onto the ground. She then walked back to the same corner of the room where she made her initial appearance and disappeared with a brief flash of gold light.

"_That should do the trick,"_ Sazaratha thought as she ended the simulation with a press of a button on the keypad. She stood from her chair and walked through the small door that led directly into the room.

Without the environmental simulation running the room was far less impressive. In fact, it was rather small compared to many other chambers within the lair of the Dark Kingdom, measuring at only twelve feet per side. It held some commonalities with other areas, such as the gray stone walls with the pulsating flames from torches providing the only light. Otherwise it was a very austere place. An oak table placed in the middle of the room and a few chairs made from the same wood that surrounded it were the only objects, let alone the only furniture. The only break in the plainness of the room was the comatose body of a small white cat that laid on the smooth surface of the table.

"Now, let's get you out of here so that 'her highness' can do whatever the hell it is she wants to do," she whispered with obvious disdain as she lifted Artemis into her arms and teleported into her personal quarters.

—|1|2|**3**|4|5|6|—

The clicks of his boots' heels against the stone platform echoed throughout the chamber as Kunzite slowly walked around the glowing purple orb that contained the suspended body of the princess. He sighed as he tried to think of a way to place the amulet around the young girl's neck without killing her. In the back of his mind he knew his mere presence within the room was agonizing to her and that her suffering increased the closer he approached her. He didn't mind inflicting pain upon the girl he greatly despised and wanted to see die so that the Dark Kingdom could finally claim the Earth as theirs. The problem was that he wasn't allowed to kill her, or even to touch her as that would have had the same effect. As a result he was stuck—or so he thought.

"_How am I going to get this thing on her without inflicting so much pain that it kills her?"_ Kunzite pondered as he held his hand out and stared that the red gem.

His eyes narrowed when he noticed the faint glow that emanated from the stone. Under normal lighting it would have been impossible to see the illumination from the amulet, but the darkness of the chamber made it easier to perceive. He took a few wary steps closer to the princess. The light from the stone progressively grew in intensity as his proximity to the princess increased. He turned his gaze upward and studied the princess's face. At no time did she exhibit any minute signs of distress that she normally would give when experiencing agonizing pain. At that moment he precisely understood the role of the stone. He continued walking toward the girl until she was within arm's reach of him before leaning closer to her side.

"Princess," Kunzite whispered into her ear from a distance close enough for her to feel his warm breath.

"Are you here to ask me more questions?" Usagi hesitantly asked.

"No, I'm not."

While his voice was steady and calm, hers was defiant. "That's good, because I don't feel like answering any more of them."

"That's not for me to decide, but if you'll allow me to give you some advice, I'd recommend that you stop your charade of bravery," he said with an air of contempt. "After all, if you haven't noticed, I'm standing right next to you and yet you're still able to breathe, let alone make insolent replies."

"So, if you're not here to ask me questions, what are you doing here?" she asked more submissively.

"Following orders," he said gruffly. He extended a finger on his right hand and firmly placed it against Usagi's forehead. "Do you feel any pain?"

"No. None at all," she said with amazement as she readily felt something touching her squarely in the middle of her brow but did not feel any burning or stinging sensations.

"Good."

Kunzite removed his finger from Usagi's forehead and carefully unfastened the clasp that linked the two ends of the gold chain so that he could slip the necklace-like amulet around her neck. He then reached his arms around the girl and reattached the two ends of the chain, allowing the walnut-sized gem to hang at her chest. The heft of the stone pulled the chain taut. With the amulet resting against the body of the princess the red glow was at its brightest, yet it was not blindingly intense even within the dim chamber.

"You should no longer feel any pain whenever any of us are nearby due to the amulet I just gave you."

If she could, she would have looked toward the man with a quizzical look, or a bright smile, or both. She did not understand why he was ordered to help stem the ever-present pain she was forced to endure ever since her capture. Not that she minded one bit, as it felt great when the apparent torture ended. However, she was extremely wary as she did not know the motivation behind his order to help her by alleviating her suffering. Was it merely a tantalizing calm before an awfully brutal storm?

"Now, Princess, I would recommend that you close your eyes for the next few minutes as they are not accustomed to even the small amount of light that is present here."

Usagi tentatively complied and a few seconds later her eyelids slid shut. At that moment there was no difference to her whether her eyes were opened or closed. However, the promise of light—of being able to see something other than utter darkness—absolutely was enticing. Again, however, it also was utterly confusing, as she figured they had deliberately blinded her for a reason.

Suddenly she could feel a sharp stinging sensation in her eyes as the minute amounts of light that filtered through her eyelids hit her retinas. For the first time she saw something other than pitch black in her field of vision. Instead it was a black with a few spots of deep red that marked the brighter light sources. As her eyes slowly adjusted to the presence of illumination the red spots disappeared and were replaced by blotches of light gray. A few minutes later even her perception of gray faded and she could only see black once again.

"I think it should be okay for you to open your eyes, but do so slowly."

She nodded, which was a motion that surprised her as she hadn't even had the ability to significantly move anything other than her lips. Gradually her eyelids lifted and revealed to her widened blue irises the first unabated photons of light they had encountered in hours. The first thing she saw was a thick, cloudy haze of purple that was almost opaque. However, as she focused her eyes she could see a few spots of dull yellow and orange in the distance. She tilted her head to the right and saw a tall man with silver hair and wearing a gray uniform and cape. A small gasp escaped her lips as she saw one of her arch-enemies standing dangerously close to her.

"There is no need to be so frightened, Princess, as I repeat once again I am under strict orders to not harm you," Kunzite said calmly.

Usagi cautiously turned her head to more easily focus on his face and shot him a look of utter disbelief. "What do you call what I've been forced to endure for the past few… I don't know how long?" she snapped.

He displayed no visible reaction to her outburst. "An unfortunate side effect of the restraint mechanism designed to contain you. Fortunately for you, you won't have to worry about that either."

"What do you mean?"

"Soon you'll be able to move your arms and legs. You won't be frozen in place like you are now."

Usagi stared at the general for several seconds with hopeful and yet simultaneously fearful and angry eyes. She knew she desperately wanted to move her arms or legs. If she could do that much then maybe she could mount some kind of resistance, or maybe escape from wherever she was held. How she would accomplish either of those goals she had no clue, but she was determined to do whatever she could to foil their plans. That was why she was so confused by the assistance they unknowingly provided her—assuming, of course, they did not anticipate her struggling.

"_Why on Earth would they allow me to move?"_ she pondered. _"Do they expect me to just willingly go along with everything they want me to do? If so they have another thing coming."_

"However, when I say that you'll be able to move, I don't necessarily mean that you'll have the ability to move freely."

He substantiated his comments when he grabbed one of Usagi's hands and placed a large gray bracelet around her wrist. He placed a similar bracelet around her other wrist, and soon both bracelets shrank so that they fit with uncomfortable tightness, eliciting a sharp whimper from the girl. She soon found out the role of the bands and the veracity of Kunzite's words when her hands automatically clasped together in front of her body as the bands effectively transformed into handcuffs. There was no physical connection between the bracelets, but there was no need for one as an almost magnetic attraction firmly held the two bands in place. No amount of thrashing of her arms could separate the two and she gave up after a few seconds of painful exertion.

"And now for the feet," Kunzite said smugly as he bent down to place similar bands around each of her ankles.

Usagi fiercely glared at the self-satisfied man as she held her bound hands out in front of her. "Why are you going through all this trouble?" she asked as innocently as she could manage. In her mind and in her heart she knew precisely why he restrained her.

"I know first-hand how cunning and wily you can be, Princess," he said contemptuously. "I'm not taking any chances with you, especially considering the person who you'll be seeing shortly."

Usagi heard a loud rumbling immediately below her and she reflexively looked down at her feet. She gulped when she saw she was floating above a large hole that led to a potentially long drop with a very painful—or worse, painless—end. However, she saw the diameter of the hole gradually decrease in size as large, triangular stone panels slid into position. After a few seconds the opening disappeared and her feet hovered mere inches above the new platform. She released a sigh of relief that she no longer risked falling to her death and could allow her mind to notice other things of slightly less importance.

"What happened to my clothes?" she asked in bewilderment.

"We removed them along with your other possessions," Kunzite nonchalantly replied. He caught the fierce glare from eyes that seemed to be turning the same red hue her face assumed and immediately understood the unbelievable fury behind the expression. "I assure you I wasn't a part of that operation, if that's what you're concerned about," he quickly added with uncharacteristic demureness as he averted his eyes from her petite form.

The red slowly faded from Usagi's face, but even with Kunzite's explanation she was no less livid about the violation. She maintained the angry countenance the entire time the general circled her levitating figure to prepare the princess for standing on her legs for the first time in hours. She didn't care if the beings that disrobed her against her will, or even without her knowledge, were 'female.' The last thing she ever wanted, apart from having her family harmed and her own death, was to be put in such a vulnerable position by the people and creatures she so fervently hated.

—|1|2|3|**4**|5|6|—

An anxious sigh escaped Beryl's lips as she reclined into her high-backed chair and imagined once more how the crucial encounter with the princess would proceed. She could not obtain the single most important piece of her initial plan and thus had to rely upon an alternate strategy. The successful conclusion of everything for which she had ever fought hinged on something that was completely untested and led to a plan that had no guarantee of working. Indubitably that made her extremely nervous.

"_Why can't things just be so much simpler,"_ she pondered as she pointed her red eyes upward at the ceiling. _"I can't afford to have anything fail, not when I'm so close to finally getting what I want."_

She closed her eyes and reveled in the darkness that filled her vision as she contemplated what it was she truly desired.

"_What is it that I want? Is it revenge against the Silver Millennium for ruining my future and my happiness? If that's it I could just go and kill that pesky bitch right now and be done with it. But that doesn't satisfy me. No, I want something more. I want to go back to the way things were, back when Endymion loved me, and not _her_."_

Her hands reflexively balled into tight fists when the disgusting image of the prince of the Earth and the princess of the Moon sitting together, kissing one another, and looking so perfect in each other's company flashed into her mind. It took all of her willpower to not leap from that chair, race down the hall, and put an end to the life of the princess right then and there. She would eventually get to that, but she had far greater plans for the interim.

"_If I can retrieve the Silver Crystal from that pathetic little princess I can gain the power to restore my kingdom from this wretched excuse for a hideaway. I can make it regain the prominence it once enjoyed." _ A tiny smirk graced her lips. _"Endymion should be impressed by what he sees of me and my power. Then the only issue is getting rid of that little girl so that she doesn't ruin things once again."_

She turned over to her side and gazed pensively at the wall. _"What did he ever see in that child? What could he ever have found to love in a child that he couldn't find in a superior form in a full-blooded woman like me? If there's anything good it seems that he dumped that idiotic little girl, and she's no longer interested in him. And without his new love in Sailor Mercury, it should be easier for me to regain his love—provided he doesn't find another little girl to fall in love with."_

She gave a nervous chuckle after experiencing that last thought. It was strange and rather uncommon for a nineteen-year-old man to fall in love with not one but two fourteen-year-old girls. However, the connections between them were immense and stretched several thousands of years into the past. So, by that standard, it may not have been so weird after all, although that reasoning did little to placate the brooding queen. It was because of her lingering pensiveness that she sat in silence for several more minutes before she felt attentive enough to speak with Kunzite via her telepathic link. Unlike her subordinates, she didn't have to do anything extraordinary to initiate or receive a link, nor did she emit any telltale light when communicating via telepathy.

"_Kunzite, how are things going with the princess?"_ she asked expectantly.

"_Your highness, the princess has been removed from the restraining device and is standing on her own feet. She's a little wobbly but that shouldn't last long,"_ Kunzite calmly replied.

"_And I assume the amulet works?"_

"_Perfectly. She feels no pain even when I make direct physical contact."_

"_Very good, Kunzite,"_ Beryl said contentedly. _"I also assume that she has been properly restrained now that she can walk, right? I don't want any funny business happening when I meet with her."_

"_You can rest assured nothing of the sort will occur. I bound both her hands and her feet, allowing just a little bit of leeway on her ankle bindings so she could walk."_

"_Excellent,"_ Beryl said as her lips were tugged into a wide and yet very sinister-looking smile. _"Transport her to another of our holding cells, preferably one that is reasonably comfortable. After that, go meet with Sazaratha and bring all the information we have on the princess's family so that we can make everything appear believable."_

"_As you wish, your highness."_ Those were the last words of the conversation as Beryl disconnected the link.

She begrudgingly stood from her chair, one that she found far more comfortable than the stodgy throne, and walked over to a large, round mirror. Her red eyes narrowed as she peered at her own figure within the glass, examining it for any flaws in appearance. It wasn't so much a case of vanity—although nobody who knew her would ever accuse her of being humble—but she absolutely wanted to ensure that she looked the part before the princess saw her for the first time in several millennia. She wanted to ensure that the first thing the princess felt when she strolled into the room was awe… awe and intimidation.

—|1|2|3|4|**5**|6|—

"Okay, so you're telling me the guardian senshi are stupid enough to think that their own princess… isn't their princess?" Haruka loudly asked in disbelief.

"Mostly," Setsuna said while solemnly nodding in response as she looked over Michiru's shoulder at the road in front of them. Haruka's beloved Skyline GT-R only seated two people so she was forced to drive her other, far less favored but far more practical, Lexus IS F to Mamoru's apartment. "One of the girls, Ami Mizuno—otherwise known as Sailor Mercury—came to her senses and made amends with the princess."

"That's good," Michiru said. A perplexed expression fell across her face as she turned around in her seat to look at Setsuna. "But why aren't we trying to find her then instead of going to talk with Endymion?"

"Because…" Setsuna paused momentarily to determine the best way of relaying the terrible information to her new comrades without completely scaring them away from their duty. However, she could not find any suitable euphemism. "It's because Ami was killed," she replied with only the slightest manifestation of sorrow.

Michiru's eyes widened with horror at the concept of a senshi dying. "Killed? How?"

"It appeared the Dark Kingdom was aware of her attempt to diffuse the conflict between the senshi and the princess and they eliminated her so that they could use it to their advantage," Setsuna calmly, if not nonchalantly, answered. "Exactly how she was killed I don't know."

"Damnit!" Haruka suddenly exclaimed, startling both her partner and guest. "Can't this idiot go any faster?"

Michiru turned to the frustrated sandy-haired blonde and gently placed a hand on her shoulder in an attempt to calm her. "We're fairly close to his apartment, so it should be fine," she said softly.

"I know, I know…" Haruka begrudgingly replied. "I can't help it… I just hate being blocked."

That line elicited a brief chuckle from the turquoise-haired woman that slightly lightened her mood given the gravity of the subject matter they were discussing. Whether the woman in the rear seat was equally amused was indeterminable if her countenance was any guide. Either way, any lightheartedness disappeared once they found a location to park nearby Mamoru's apartment complex and proceeded to enter the building.

"So, our princess was captured, her guardians were too stupid to figure out that she really was the princess, the only one who wasn't stupid effectively was murdered before she could really do anything, and to top it all off we have no idea where our princess is now or how to find her," Haruka said pensively as she turned her apprehensive eyes first to her lover and then to Setsuna. A sarcastic smirk almost reflexively came to her lips. "I'd say that bodes quite well for our chances of success."

"Yes, I agree we are in quite a difficult situation," Setsuna said with remarkable evenness. "However, I think we may have a chance to rescue her if we can find one of the agents of the Dark Kingdom."

"How exactly will that help us?" Michiru interjected. "And what does any of this have to do with Endymion?"

"I will explain all of that shortly," she soberly replied as she stole a quick glance at the elegant but annoyingly inquisitive woman before proceeding to knock on the door of Apartment 502. "Right now we have a prince we need to talk to."

A few seconds later the door slowly opened and Mamoru appeared before them with a quizzical look on his face. "Um… hello," he said in a tentative greeting.

"Hello," Setsuna courteously replied. "You're Mamoru Chiba, correct?"

"Yes, I am," he said with continued uncertainty. "Is there something that I can help you ladies with?"

"I'm very sorry to intrude. My name is Setsuna Meiou, a doctor from Juuban Second General Hospital, although that detail is not of importance right now. Behind me are my colleagues Haruka Tenou and Michiru Kaiou," she politely said as she gestured behind her. "The reason we are here is that we have something very important to discuss with you. May we come inside?"

Mamoru nodded and moved aside to allow the three strange women entry into his apartment. He found it quite odd that he had so many people of the opposite sex at his apartment in such a short amount of time. Only a few hours ago he had hosted and utterly lambasted the three young senshi for their thoughtlessness. That was followed by the three ladies currently at his door whose very presence piqued his curiosity due to the strong yet unfamiliar auras he detected from them. He softly shut the door behind him and walked over to the sofa, eyeing his three guests the entire way.

"Now, Chiba-san, you may wonder about our purpose for visiting you," Setsuna said carefully as she looked at the confused man with tranquil, almost morose, garnet eyes. "I wish it was something far more pleasurable, but instead it is a subject of immense seriousness and one that concerns you quite profoundly."

"What could possibly be of such great importance that involves me?" Mamoru asked with suspicion.

"I am aware of your acquaintance with a young woman named Usagi Tsukino," Setsuna calmly replied as she locked her gaze on the man's eyes.

Mamoru felt a small lump in his throat grow when he heard the name. "Yes… I do know her," he slowly stammered. "But what does that have to do with anything?"

"She's missing, and we need your help to find her," Michiru interrupted with a more emphatic tone.

"Yes, she was taken a few hours ago, and we believe your assistance in locating and rescuing her is of immense value," Setsuna added in a composed yet resolute voice.

"Who… who are you people?" Mamoru nervously asked. Part of his apprehension came from the unusual nature of his guests that he continued to analyze within his mind but mainly originated from his growing fear of what may have befallen Usagi.

"How could he be so dense as to not have figured it out already?" Haruka irately mumbled, presumably under her breath although the subject of her complaint readily heard her resulting in a curious glare turned in her direction.

"You're fully aware of the existence of the Sailor Senshi," Setsuna matter-of-factly declared, drawing the man's attention back to her. "However, you only know of the four guardian senshi, the ones who were present during the collapse of the Silver Millennium. As such, we extend our apologies to you, Endymion, for our absence and failure to protect our princess and your betrothed then, and promise that we will do everything we can to save her now. But we desperately need your help for that to happen."

"You're…" Mamoru uttered, partially in shock that they knew so much about his otherwise secret identity. However, a part of him was relieved that they knew as it explained why he felt so strange in their presence. It was just a matter of determining the context in which they knew him.

"Sailor Pluto," Setsuna answered with a small nod of her head.

"Uranus and Neptune here," Haruka gruffly added.

"We only became aware of our powers after she was taken, so please don't blame us for not being able to do anything to stop it," Michiru said somewhat apologetically.

Any last vestiges of distress that he might have felt in their presence melted away when they finally revealed their identities. Instead he felt refreshed that they arrived, and just in time to be of good use at that. The idea that Usagi still had someone loyal to her brought a smile to his lips.

"I see…" he said as his grin grew wider. "I don't remember meeting any of you from any recollections of my past life, but I definitely remember that you existed. You were tasked with guarding the planets from external threats, so I guess it came as a complete shock when Beryl attacked from within."

"Yes, it was a complete surprise to us and we weren't able to respond quickly enough to be of any use," Setsuna replied with her typical poise. "Then we were shuttled to the future… well, _they_ were shuttled to the future by Serenity's use of the Silver Crystal along with the guardian senshi." She deftly pointed behind her to the sandy blond- and turquoise-haired women while she spoke.

"Speaking of them, you know what those blazing idiots did to their own princess, right?" Haruka asked in an angry tone that clearly wasn't directed at the person to whom she was talking.

"Yes, and as a matter of fact I just spoke with them about that very subject a few hours ago," he said far more calmly. "Luckily I seem to have gotten through to one of them, but the other two are way too wrapped up in their hatred of Usagi."

"Which one?" Michiru asked excitedly.

"Sailor Jupiter… Makoto Kino is her name," he said. "She was quite upset at having attacked Usagi and being involved in forcefully removing her transformation brooch, and—"

"_What?"_ all three women asked, or rather exclaimed, in unison. They were, to a person, stunned at such a development.

"Who the hell thought that was a good idea?" Haruka soon added with fiery rage building within her.

"Minako's, or rather Sailor Venus's," Mamoru replied.

"It seems the other senshi were less wise than I thought," Setsuna said with lingering disappointment. "Although I agree that it's heartening that one of the girls decided to see the light, as it were."

"But I guess that explains how our princess managed to be captured so easily," Michiru sadly noted.

Mamoru's eyes widened as the statement reminded him of the original purpose of their visit. It also provided an explanation for the cry for help he sensed that strangely and suddenly terminated before he could even transform into Tuxedo Kamen. He realized that Usagi was captured by the Dark Kingdom without any capacity for self-defense and, up to that point, none of her senshi either available or willing to help her. He knew how much Beryl and the Shitennou loathed the princess and would want to kill her at the first opportunity.

"We have to find her, and fast," Mamoru said with palpable concern in his voice and etched in the features of his face. "It will be an absolute disaster for all of us if we don't."

"Yeah, we know that already," Haruka exasperatedly blurted while rolling her teal eyes. "What we don't know is where she is located and how we can go in and save her."

"Actually, there is a way we could find out, but it's a little complicated and it depends on whether or not Beryl is the same person now as she was then," Setsuna said evenly but with a hint of optimism. "And that's where you come in, Chiba-san."

—|1|2|3|4|5|**6**|—

Her sapphire-blue eyes slowly shifted about as she carefully surveyed her new surroundings. Usagi was thrilled to be able to see anything at all after spending so much time deliberately blinded by her captors, although she was not particularly impressed by the view. The place was a drab gray and brown combination of stone and metal specifically designed and constructed to hold unruly guests. She stepped forward to one of the walls—an easy feat considering the cramped dimensions of the cell—and lightly brushed the back of one hand against the rough surface before balling her bound hands into fists and rapping them against the barrier. It was solid enough to hold most creatures, even the harshest of youmas she had experienced in combat, but she could immediately sense that it was woefully insufficient for containing her. That was, it couldn't contain her if she had the ability to transform into Sailor Moon, but that clearly was impossible. A rueful sigh escaped her lips as she backed away from the wall and carefully sat upon an elevated surface that played the role of a rudimentary chair.

"_I guess we'll see what they have in store for me,"_ she thought as she looked through the tiny holes of the steel door and at the back of one of the youmas guarding her. _"Clearly they went through so much trouble to hurt me so badly and so painfully. Given how much they hate me I don't know why they stopped, but I'm glad they did."_

She laid her back against the cold wall and pointed her eyes at the ceiling as she restlessly waited for whatever it was that would eventually transpire. The desire to allow her eyelids to sag and to allow sleep to overtake her was strong but she resisted it. Who knew what would happen to her if she allowed her guard to drop for even a second in such a hostile environment. The fact that her captors suddenly were being 'nice' to her understandably left her extremely wary of their true motivations. However, as the minutes passed by and absolutely nothing seemed to be happening she began to become extremely bored of the waiting.

"_Okay… are they just going to leave me in here forever?"_ She twisted the strands of one of her long blond pigtails within her fingers. _"Not that I mind, but I wish I had something else to do besides stare at the walls. It's starting to bore me to tears."_

A loud clank that originated from one end of the hall disrupted her meditation and caused her to shift into a more upright and attentive position. Finally there was some action. Loud thuds reverberated down the corridor as some being slowly trudged in her direction. She sneaked to the door and peered through one of the holes in an attempt to see who or what was heading her way. It turned out to be a what, and multiple of them at that.

"_Ugh, just more ugly youmas,"_ Usagi inaudibly complained. Her nose scrunched upward and her brow furrowed in confusion when she twisted her body around and found a better vantage point for gazing down the hall. _"But why are there so many of them. I can see at least ten of them. What in the world are they planning to do?"_

In actuality there were twenty of the monsters, but she couldn't see all of them due to the guards that partially blocked her view. Some of them stood in attention at the end of the corridor while others lined the narrow hallway that led to her cell. They had marched in lock step, masking their true number up to the last second. The purpose behind their dramatic entrance and occupation of the hall would be exposed a few seconds later.

At that moment a tall woman wearing a dark purple dress and possessing long, flaming red hair confidently strolled down the hallway. She was accompanied by a quartet of suspiciously human guards wearing steel blue suits evocative of the Shitennou's garb and bearing large swords secured in white scabbards. As for the woman, she had a commanding presence about her that was substantiated by the submissive behavior of the youma guards as she approached them. They were deathly afraid of making a mistake and it showed in the slight trembling of their bodies and, in the ones biologically capable of the action, the clammy appearance of their skin. It seemed as if they knew the punishment for their failure would be especially severe.

Usagi slowly backed away from the door and crouched near the back wall of the cell. She was extremely apprehensive of this new person, one who she had never seen before but clearly exuded a massive aura. A small red glint at the base of her field of vision caught her attention and caused her eyes to reflexively turn downward. The small gem that hung around her neck released the brightest red glow she had witnessed from the object, and it only appeared to increase in intensity as the woman approached. She remembered what Kunzite told her about the amulet and immediately became fearful of what would happen to her should she find herself in close proximity to that woman and somehow lose the precious stone. Assuming she didn't immediately die, the suffering would have been unmanageable. Instead she merely sensed the enormity of the woman's dark, wholly evil energy without feeling any pain.

The door gradually swung open and Usagi could more clearly see the woman whose energy she readily perceived. Strangely, the very first thing she thought was how majestically beautiful the woman was, far more stunning than the blonde had expected. Perhaps if the buxom lady weren't so plainly wicked her exquisiteness could have been better appreciated and celebrated. But she was of incalculable and incurable evil, so much so that even with the protection of the amulet Usagi involuntarily cringed. That hardly deterred the woman from approaching until she stood dangerously close to the girl. She bent her knees to lean in closer and bring her mouth right next to the cowering Usagi's ear. With a slightly harsh yet curiously mellifluous whisper she spoke her first words to her prized captive:

"Alas, my dear Princess Serenity, we finally meet… again."


	33. Vital Decisions

**Chapter 33: Vital Decisions**

"Huh? I don't quite understand what you mean when you ask if Beryl is the same person now as she was then." Mamoru's widened eyes and the slight rise of one of his eyebrows served to accentuate his feelings of bafflement.

Setsuna maintained her mostly calm visage, gazing at the man with tranquil garnet eyes, as she worked to alleviate his perplexity. "A lot of our plan depends on what Beryl's motivations are in the present and whether they're the same things as what drove her in the past. If you remember, she—"

"Was after me," he interjected as he quickly realized what the woman had meant with her previous statement. He walked around to the front of the sofa and dejectedly slumped into the soft cushions. "She was driven by her hatred for me and lust for revenge against me for rejecting her and choosing Serenity," he said softly.

He sighed deeply during a momentary pause. The three women merely stood their ground and delivered sympathetic stares.

"I guess I can understand why she would feel that way," he continued as an ironic chuckle slipped past his lips. "She was going to be the queen of the Earth after all, with me as king. It was the one thing she dreamed about for most of her life, and she was so close to realizing that dream. But all of that disappeared when I broke the engagement and decided to pursue the princess of the Moon."

"So, what you're saying is that the collapse of the Silver Millennium was due to you breaking Beryl's heart? Seriously?" Haruka asked in disbelief, her caring gaze having vanished with the revelation. She had the yearning to say more after that but somehow managed to hold her tongue.

Mamoru curtly shook his head. "That may have contributed somewhat, but you can't neglect the role of Metalia in all of that."

"Who's Metalia?" Michiru asked with concern and curiosity. Haruka intently gazed at Mamoru while displaying an equally inquisitive expression.

Setsuna slowly walked around the group to a position where she could more easily address the other two senshi and Mamoru. A sharp cough immediately drew everyone's undivided attention to her.

"From what I can recall and glean from researching the past, Metalia is an extraterrestrial being that thrives on dominating and, occasionally, destroying other planets," Setsuna calmly answered. "She is a form of pure evil, plain and simple."

"But how could she get to Earth without any of us noticing?" Michiru queried as she trembled at the idea that she, or rather her past self, partly was responsible for the death and destruction that befell the Silver Millennium and her princess.

"Metalia has a way of infiltrating the most stringent of defenses due to her amorphous nature," Setsuna responded as she gazed anxiously at the turquoise-haired woman and her equally fretful partner. "I strongly doubt, even if we were at our most attentive, that we would have detected her presence beyond perceiving a faint sense of unease."

Haruka angrily shook her head, pounded a fist into her open palm, and grumbled something inaudibly that vaguely sounded like the word "bullshit." She was infuriated at both the enemy that effectively destroyed the life of the princess she promised to protect and at herself for her failure to defend the girl from that threat. As she physically was the strongest of the senshi she felt she could have done something to stop Metalia if only she was aware of the menace's presence.

"We cannot change what has occurred in the past," Setsuna gently said as she turned her eyes to the distressed sandy-haired blonde. "If there is any solace to our failure then, it is the fact that Metalia was severely weakened due to the power of the Silver Crystal. And this gets me back to the issue I posed earlier regarding Beryl and her motivations."

"That is, does she's still want to kill me for abandoning her?" Mamoru uttered.

Setsuna solemnly nodded. "_If_ that still is her intention," she said cautiously. "She has been gathering a lot of energy for Metalia through the actions of her Shitennou and various youmas. What she ultimately plans to do with Metalia is unknown. However, if it is the case that she ultimately wants her revenge against you, then my plan is to present to her what appears to be the opportunity."

"Basically you're saying that you want to use me as bait of some kind," Mamoru indignantly responded as she shot an angry glare toward the senshi of revolution.

"I think what Setsuna's saying that we use you to get us into the Dark Kingdom and rescue Usagi," Michiru said as she flashed Mamoru a slightly concerned look. "Although I'm still unsure how that's going to work."

"Well, if she wants me dead, I don't think handing me to her on a silver platter is going to get Usagi back."

"I don't know. Maybe if she can take out her fury on you then she'll have no reason to keep Usagi any longer," Haruka snidely responded with a sardonic grin. "After all, it _is_ kinda your fault all of this started in the first place."

"However, my plan isn't to cause you undue harm," Setsuna coolly interjected in an attempt to reassure Mamoru that he would remain safe. "If everything goes well you'll be more akin to the mythological Trojan horse. The only thing is to ensure that they notice you and agree to transport you to their lair."

"And how is it possible that we would be transported with him?" Michiru skeptically asked, peering at the enigmatic woman with a raised eyebrow.

"From my observations of the Shitennou I've learned that they primarily use teleportation to travel to and from the Dark Kingdom," Setsuna answered. "Typically they are alone when they use that mode of transportation, but this afternoon they used teleportation to capture our princess. They used the exact same mode of teleportation with no evident changes in methodology despite moving an additional person."

"So, what exactly are you saying, Setsuna?" Haruka brusquely asked.

"Essentially, anything that is physically connected to the person that is teleporting also will be teleported," Setsuna said more plainly, eliciting a round of nods from everyone else within the room.

"I somewhat see what you plan to do," Mamoru said while slowly pushing himself from the sofa and to his feet. "But if we need to be physically attached—touching in some way—how will they not notice your presence as well? If they want to capture me I would think they'd be discreet enough to do it somewhere private and sensible enough to make sure I'm alone."

"You are absolutely correct," Setsuna replied with a curt nod and an almost imperceptible wry grin. "However, I have considered exactly that in the construction of my plan." She reached into her pocket and retrieved a small spool of gray thread and held it out in an open palm.

"Wait… thread? What on Earth do you expect to do with that?" Haruka incredulously asked.

"As I said before, anything that's physically attached to the person that's teleported also will be teleported," Setsuna replied as her grin grew larger.

"I assume you're going to attach that to Mamoru and then to all of us," Michiru asked skeptically, drawing a quick nod from her green-haired comrade. "How will they not notice the thread hanging from him and track that back to us?"

An inaudible laugh and tiny smirk, followed by an extension of about three feet of the lightweight thread, provided a very telling answer to the essential question. The two other women and Mamoru had to squint to even see the narrow strand, and they were standing within arm's reach of Setsuna in a well-lit room.

"Now, do you think someone could see that from a few feet away?" Setsuna probingly asked. "It's highly unlikely the person would even notice it at all."

"No, but then we'd have to ensure that the thread didn't break," Mamoru replied in a hesitant tone. "If that happened then there would not be any possibility of your trick working."

"We'll use multiple strands," was the nonchalant response from Setsuna. "Some of them might break but it's unlikely, so long as you don't move around too vigorously, that all of them will."

"In other words I'll be strung up like a puppet?" Mamoru asked dryly as he gave the strange woman a decidedly unpleasant glare.

"Not quite, as I anticipate only attaching the threads at your ankles. However, if it's any consolation to you, all of us will be similarly attached," Setsuna said as she gave a small, sympathetic smile.

Mamoru turned away from Setsuna and the other women and started to pace back and forth, his head lowered and eyes tracing the intricate patterns of the graining in the hardwood floor as his mind was deep in thought. He could feel their pointed stares as they eagerly awaited some form of response. It bothered him as he wanted to ponder and analyze the plan further before making a decision. However, he also knew that the longer he waited the worse off Usagi would be and the lower the probability any of them would have of rescuing their cherished princess. Analysis would have to take a back seat this one time.

"You know…" Mamoru tentatively began, "I think your plan is fraught with holes, has a very high chance of endangering both me and all of you, and all-in-all is utterly and completely insane." He turned his dark-blue eyes to an unsurprisingly tranquil Setsuna and gave her a mischievous smile. "It's also so unexpected that it just might work."

"Wait! So… you're in?" Haruka asked in a perplexed tone.

"Unless anyone has a much better plan, I'll have to say yes," Mamoru replied as he turned his gaze to the blonde and her turquoise-haired partner.

"Now, what about you two?" Setsuna calmly asked of her fellow senshi. "Are you okay with the plan?"

The two exchanged momentary glances that expressed far more concern, reassurance, and acceptance of fate to one another than any outsider could perceive before quickly giving their answer.

"I'll do it," Haruka resolutely replied with a curt nod of her head.

"Anything to rescue our princess," Michiru added with equivalent determination.

"Thank you," Setsuna said with uncharacteristically overt happiness as she gave them a small yet very warm smile. She turned her radiant garnet eyes to Mamoru. "Now it's just a matter of getting you someplace where they would also need to be so that they'll see you."

"My guess is the Hikawa Shrine," Mamoru suggested with a slight shrug of his shoulders.

"Isn't that where the other senshi usually meet?" Haruka keenly asked. "Why the hell would you want to go there, especially after your previous meeting with them?"

"But it does make sense if you think that they're also after the Silver Crystal," Setsuna said.

"The other senshi have Usagi's brooch, and I assume that means they have the Silver Crystal as well," Mamoru added.

"Which means we have to get there as quickly as possible before they find out the brooch and the crystal are there!" Michiru apprehensively exclaimed as she tugged on Haruka's arm and effectively started dragging her lover to the door.

The other two momentarily were stunned by the awkward display but soon realized that the senshi of the sea was correct. Time was just as much their enemy as was the Dark Kingdom. They had to move quickly to ensure they secured the transformation brooch and had an opportunity to put their plan into action. None of them wanted to discover what would have befallen them and the planet if they failed to do either.

—|1|**2**|3|4|5|—

He knew from his altitude and the extensive foliage from the tall trees that it was difficult for his targets to notice they were under surveillance. It also hindered his ability to spy on them, but that concerned him less as he could readily hear everything that transpired from within the temple. He didn't even have to strain his sensitive ears to pick up the sounds emanating from the building. The heated argument between the unwitting subjects made it incredibly simple to detect every word they spoke. It wasn't that they were deliberately careless, as they knew the temple was in a relatively isolated location within Juuban. Because of that the possibility that someone was listening to them never crossed their minds. The smirk tugging at his lips grew as Zoisite relished every second of their obliviousness.

It was under that watchful eye and perceptive ear that the senshi unwittingly allowed their passionate argument to be observed. The sliding door of the temple slammed open and an irate Makoto stormed into the large courtyard. She was closely trailed by an equally furious Minako and Rei, both of whom ran in front of her in an attempt to outflank and contain the determined girl.

"I will not allow anyone who sides with a traitor to remain a senshi so long as I am leader," Minako coldly declared as she stared down the taller brunette with an unwavering gaze.

"Or else what?" Makoto retorted, returning a threatening glare as her muscles tensed in preparation for the seemingly inevitable conflict. "You'll attack me the same way you did Usagi? Well, guess what? I'm not as passive as she is, and you'll be damned sure that I'm not running away."

"Yeah, but you're outnumbered," Rei said haughtily. "So if I were you I'd give up your transformation pen. It's far less painful that way."

"Actually, if I were _you_ I'd let me go and forget about any of this the same way you forgot how much of a friend Usagi was to you," Makoto adamantly replied in her harshest tone yet as she turned her eyes to the raven-haired girl standing before her with arms akimbo.

Rei's arrogance quickly morphed into rage. "As if! No friend of mine would have tried to kill me and then pretend it was some sort of accident!"

"That argument's old and played out, Rei. When will you put your useless anger aside and actually forgive Usagi, especially after the umpteenth apology she's given you?"

"Never! So long as she's still out there working against us I can't forgive her!"

"Rei has a point," Minako flatly remarked, her narrowed eyes never leaving Makoto's figure. She extended an open hand at the brunette. "Anyway, if you believe so strongly that Usagi is innocent, that's fine. You can join her and do whatever you want alongside her. But the cost of that is you're no longer considered a senshi, and we're not going to let you leave with that pen."

Makoto pulled the green and gold pen from her pocket and longingly gazed at it for a few seconds before clutching it tightly to her chest. "I'm going to find Usagi _and_ I'm keeping my pen, and there's nothing any of you can do to stop me from doing either," she frostily stated as she proceeded to walk to the long series of steps that lead to the exit of the shrine.

Rei saw what she perceived as a perfect opportunity to swiftly snatch the transformation pen from Makoto's grasp and bolted directly at the angry brunette. The shrine maiden's charge momentarily confounded Makoto and allowed the raven-haired girl to slip her arm underneath that of the taller girl. If the senshi of fire had the same magnitude of physical strength as the person she was attacking she could have used that muscle to pry the arm away from Makoto's chest. That was the strength Rei knew she desperately needed and sorely lacked as the element of surprise rapidly disappeared. Her violet eyes widened in horror as she realized no amount of yanking on that brawny arm would be beneficial. Furthermore, she was far too close to an infuriated Makoto than she wanted to be for comfort. She tried to back away as quickly as she could but her suddenly willing opponent seized her forearm with her free hand. At that moment she knew any semblance of comfort was long gone.

"I said you're not stopping me," Makoto ominously whispered into a struggling Rei's ear.

Her royal blue eyes were fixated on the fracas developing right before her. Minako knew that Rei did not stand a chance taking Makoto on one-on-one and rushed over to support her fellow senshi. She didn't know exactly what she was going to do against the much stronger girl, but she wasn't going to sit back and let Rei get pummeled. Unfortunately for her, by running up to the interlocked pair she unknowingly put herself in far more danger than she intended. Her widened eyes readily witnessed the knee that forcefully drove into Rei's stomach, the black hair that fell over the violet orbs as her body slumped over, and the deep shadow that grew in size as the shrine maiden's body was lifted into the air. However, her brain failed to comprehend the meaning of all those events and convey the results to her conscious self until it was far too late. She fell backwards to the ground as Rei's flying body slammed into her. The force of the impact caused her head to smack hard against the stone walkway, knocking her out cold.

Makoto took one last look at the unmoving figures of the girls she formerly considered her comrades. She cringed and momentarily dropped her hardhearted stance when she detected a bright crimson spot slowly expand beneath the haphazardly strewn golden blond strands. The liquid filled the cracks in the cobblestone and spread farther and farther away from its source. She felt slightly nauseous at the dreadful idea of what she might have done, but the minute rise and fall of the girl's chest quickly reassured her. The last thing she wanted to do was to end Minako's life, no matter how much she felt the so-called leader may have deserved it. As bad as the scene appeared, she knew that soon the regenerative powers the blonde possessed as a senshi would save her. Feeling both relief and a rededicated sense of resolve, Makoto turned away from the pair and rushed down the dozens of steps that lead away from the shrine.

"_Interesting… It seems that the senshi are doing more to tear each other apart than any of us ever could achieve,"_ Zoisite thought with a smirk as his eyes followed the departing girl. _"Beryl will be quite happy to hear about this."_

—|1|2|**3**|4|5|—

Usagi's body involuntarily stiffened when the curiously powerful woman leaned so close to her and whispered softly into her ear. Her voice was smooth and songlike, but it was the words and not the tone from that hauntingly dark presence that both captivated and immensely frightened the blonde. She slowly turned her sapphire-blue eyes to capture the fiery red counterparts that gazed at her. If the hatred behind those eyes wasn't so palpable, the look would have been construed as gentle patience.

"Beryl…" Usagi uttered as she attempted to cower even further away from the woman.

She nodded in affirmation and gave an ominous smile. Surprisingly, instead of leaning forward and attacking her as Usagi fully anticipated she would do, Beryl slowly and gracefully stepped a few paces away from the girl. Then she did something even more unexpected: she bowed to the princess. It was a small dip of her head that lasted only a brief moment, but it was a genuflection nonetheless.

"Yes, I am Queen Beryl, high sovereign of the Imperial Kingdom of Earth," the woman stated with calculated gentleness and only slightly reserved pride. She gestured to the startled girl with a motion that relayed her request to stand up and walk with her.

"What do you plan to do to me?" Usagi hesitantly asked.

"That entirely depends on what you do," Beryl replied with a strained calmness. "In any case I'm sure you would not want to be stuck here in this dark cell much longer, so if you would, please follow me."

Beryl held her arm out at her side and waited for Usagi to join her at her side. It was an arduous wait for her and she labored to maintain her tranquility in the presence of the girl she passionately hated. Yet, for the several seconds that elapsed while the blonde built the courage to walk in such close proximity to a woman she equally loathed, the woman did not crack. She retained the kindhearted façade even when Usagi warily stood within arm's reach of her. She resisted the temptation to stretch her arms out, wrap her strong fingers around that petite neck, and strangle the girl until she released her last breath. It was especially difficult since she knew the irritating princess was incapable of transforming into Sailor Moon to defend herself. But she fought the urge as she didn't want to ruin her far superior plan.

"_What am I doing?"_ Usagi asked herself as she stood side by side with the leader of all the youmas she had killed and the Shitennou generals she battled. _"Why am I walking with her? She could be leading me to my death for all I know."_ She looked over her shoulder at the empty cell as the youma that guarded the entrance secured the heavy door. _"At the same time, I guess staying in there would have lead to the same fate, so I might as well go."_

The pair created an incredibly peculiar scene as they walked down the corridor and away from the prison cell. Beryl dwarfed Usagi as the red-haired woman was more than a foot taller than the blonde. Her elegant and close fitting purple gown accentuated her regality and provided a striking contrast to the austere black robes and shackles that Usagi was forced to wear. However, as much as she was a captive and was made to appear as one, Usagi also gradually exuded a confidence that rivaled Beryl's the longer she walked with the self-proclaimed queen. Such was her defiance by refusing to succumb to her initial fears and doubts that, if someone who knew nothing of the situation had laid eyes on the pair, they would have been hard pressed to determine who really was in control.

Beryl eventually led Usagi to a room completely different from the desolate and foreboding cell she once occupied. It was larger than the former place and far more comfortable to the eyes, let alone the other parts of the body. A small wooden table covered in a white tablecloth and a pair of large chairs with plush scarlet cushions stood at one side of the room. The other side of the room was curiously empty. The cream-colored walls were bare except for a tastefully decorative pattern of swirling violet lines that repeated its way around the expanse. A warm light filled the room and embossed everything with a golden glow. Overall the room wasn't ostentatious, but it was a major step upward from either the stone prison or, worse, the hellish containment chamber. Usagi enthusiastically welcomed the change in venue.

"You may sit if you like," Beryl said evenly as she pointed to one of the chairs.

Usagi tentatively chose the chair closest to the entrance—who knew when she needed to make a hasty escape, after all—and warily examined it before cautiously taking a seat. Beryl sat in the remaining chair and tried her best to look at the blonde without overtly glaring. It wouldn't help her cause to be openly hostile to the young princess so early during the conversation she intended to hold with her. Although she rarely had the opportunity to use it beyond the confines of her own lair, especially in light of her current war she waged against the senshi, diplomacy was a skill she possessed and wielded with aplomb. She opened her mouth to speak, but before any words could come out, she heard an unmistakable growling noise that emanated from the girl's stomach.

"I figure you must not have had much to eat since arriving here," Beryl said guardedly but with just the right amount of concern in her voice. "If you want, before we begin, I could have one of my servants bring some food."

The audacity of the statement relative to what Usagi knew of the person who asked it caused the girl to spin around in her chair. She stared at Beryl with a combined expression of apprehension, confusion, and relief etched on her features. In terms of actual time it was only a few hours since she had last eaten, but the painful experience of being forcefully teleported into the Dark Kingdom and subjected to unbearable torture severely drained her of energy. She desperately needed to eat something to regain her strength, but she wasn't certain whether she could trust the woman with something so essential. For all she knew the invitation could have been an attempt to poison her.

"I-I'm fine," Usagi hesitantly replied.

"Are you sure?" Beryl asked with perceived patience. "You absolutely will need your energy for the impending hour or so that I expect the interview will last."

Usagi momentarily dithered as she contemplated whether to actually take the queen up on her offer for food. It was tempting, to be sure, but her main concern still nagged at her. Before continuing on she needed to be sure in her own mind that she wasn't placing herself in mortal danger any more than she was by sitting in that room.

"How can I be sure that you're not trying to trick me and poison me?" she emphatically asked as her steely blue eyes locked onto Beryl's red counterparts and searched for some kind of hint that might have belied whatever answer she gave.

"Princess… I understand your concern as you know of my less-than-favorable feelings toward you," Beryl replied with a curious chuckle. "However, please rest assured that I don't intend to harm you at this time, and certainly not by a method as crude and vulgar as poisoning."

The blonde meticulously studied the eyes and expressions of the woman for several seconds before she released a rueful sigh. Her own features quickly softened and her eyes deviated from the excruciating sight of the woman she loathed to pick up something more appealing. In that case, it was a blank spot on the cream-colored wall.

"_She hates me, that's for sure,"_ Usagi thought, _"but she's being honest as far as I can tell in that she doesn't want to kill me… at least for right now."_

"So, Princess, will you accept my offer of food?" Beryl asked once more with slightly less patience in her tone.

Usagi looked down at her stomach and bound hands. She knew she shouldn't accept the meal, but… At that time her stomach made its opinion known once again by growling even louder than before. Furthermore she felt the uncomfortable pangs of hunger more readily than ever. There was only one viable answer she could give at that point.

"Yes," she whispered resignedly as her eyes remained fixated on her stomach.

"Very well," Beryl replied. "I hope you like baked chicken, as that's the meal that we were preparing for today before your arrival."

Usagi slowly nodded. She didn't have much of an opinion toward baked chicken as she only had it a few times in her life. So long as it was edible she didn't care what she was served. However, Beryl's statement deeply perplexed the girl as it expressed a reality she hadn't contemplated or thought was even possible.

"You… you _eat_?" Usagi asked in stunned confusion as she turned widened eyes once again to the powerful queen.

Beryl let out a haunting chuckle, one that contained both disdain and amusement, before calming down enough to give a response.

"Yes, of course I eat," she said with an understandably incredulous tone given the question. "Despite my magic I _am_ a human being, just like you. It's the same with the Shitennou and a few others around here." She paused for a few seconds as though pondering whether it was beneficial to continue speaking. "Although, where we happen to be located, we have to grow and produce our own food, which is quite difficult as you might imagine."

Usagi nodded her head in understanding, though not necessarily in acceptance or compassion. Despite the woman's apparent plight, Beryl remained her hated foe. Nothing would be gained, and all she loved would be lost, if she gave the wicked queen the same consideration she provided others. That woman was the one being to whom she had to be especially unsympathetic. A tough task when the woman she loathed was the same person who willingly fed her.

A few minutes later one of the more attractive and more human-like youmas arrived carrying a tray and a covered platter. Its appearance was remarkably different from the monsters that guarded her cell, or even any of the creatures she fought in battle. The ostensibly female youma set the platter down upon the unfolded tray and revealed a pair of dishes.

"Ah, thank you," Beryl told the youma, who graciously bowed in return before departing the room. She soon returned with another folding tray, a pitcher of water, and two glasses, an act that Usagi genuinely found curious.

"So you're eating as well?"

"I might as well. The interview process is just as taxing for me as it will be for you."

The youma set one of the plates and a glass filled with water on the side of the table nearest Usagi. Without realizing that she said it until later she uttered muted words of appreciation for which the creature politely bowed in response. The youma then positioned the other plate and water-filled glass nearby her queen and genuflected more acutely before standing attentively at the other side of the room.

"So, Princess, is the food to your liking?" Beryl asked as she held a fork in one hand and knife in the other and was in the process of cutting a small piece from the golden-brown chicken breast.

"It looks good, but how am I supposed to eat with my hands so close together?" Usagi resentfully asked as she displayed her bound wrists.

Beryl nodded and swiped her hand over Usagi's. "They're no longer bound," she said somewhat begrudgingly before switching to a stern tone. "However, I warn you not to attempt anything foolish."

Feeling partially relieved at the free movement of her arms once again, Usagi grabbed her own fork and poked at the rather large piece of chicken. It responded the way she remembered it should when being jabbed, which was a good sign. She then lifted her knife, cut a small square from the warm slab, and tentatively placed it in her mouth. As much as she didn't want to show any semblance of pleasure it was difficult for her to resist giving a small smile of approval before quashing the emotion.

"I'll assume that means you like it," Beryl nonchalantly mentioned after noticing the fleeting smile on Usagi's lips.

"It's… good," Usagi curtly replied while taking a sip of water from the glass before returning to the wonderfully delicious chicken.

"It should be. Any kingdom worth its existence should have a good chef," Beryl said smugly. She took a larger gulp from her own glass. The entire time her eyes remained fixed on her captive dinner guest.

"You know, Princess… do you ever wonder how things ended up this way?" she suddenly asked in a peculiar voice when she rested the half-empty glass upon the table. It wasn't one of disdain but rather sincere interest.

Usagi glanced up from her plate and turned wary eyes to the red-haired woman. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, this whole conflict within which we find ourselves entrenched and the hostility between us."

The blond girl blinked a few times but remained completely silent as her mind raced to figure out the intent behind Beryl's question. _"Is she truly asking me this out of curiosity or is there some other plot that I'm missing? It's an awfully strange question to ask after fighting each other for so long, both in the past life and in the present."_

"Don't we already know what caused it?" Usagi retorted as her nose twisted and an eyebrow lifted in perplexity.

Beryl shook her head as a small frown appeared on her face. "That's the ending you're talking about," she said with disappointment lingering in her lowered tone. "The attack on your pathetic little kingdom and the slaughter of your forces and your friends is what you're talking about. I'm talking about something more fundamental. I'm talking about the underlying reason for the attack in the first place."

"Endymion…" Usagi uttered in a low whisper, her voice trailing away.

"Yes, Endymion," Beryl sneered. "The man who would be king of Earth with me as Queen, had you not stolen him from me." The woman took a deep breath, ostensibly to calm her growing fury, but also to prevent her emotions from disrupting the carefully constructed plan. "Anyway, what I want to do is tell you my story. That way, we may have some better understanding of our mutual positions and, if all goes well, arrive at some conclusion that helps both of us."

"_I guess I have no real choice but to listen, do I?"_ Usagi bemoaned in her mind. _"I figure letting her talk is better than whatever alternative she may have planned. And, who knows… maybe she's serious about being nice, and there's a way I can actually get out of this mess."_

"Go ahead," Usagi said while giving a faint nod.

Immediately after the blonde gave her approval Beryl began her story. Only after the first minute of listening to her nemesis's speech did Usagi realize the huge mistake she had made.

—|1|2|3|**4**|5|—

The rain started to splatter lightly against the windshield as Haruka sped down the street in the direction of Hikawa Shrine. Normally she was more careful when she took passengers with her, but that early evening was a special case. It helped immensely that driving fast was both her passion and profession as none of the other passengers would have been able to navigate the slippery roads with such skill. They considered traveling on foot and taking advantage of the increased speed and strength of their senshi forms, but for some reason Setsuna thought it better if they traveled less conspicuously. She justified her concern to her newly acquired comrades by telling them the Dark Kingdom likely was monitoring the locations inhabited by the inner senshi. That alone was a reasonable argument, one to which the senshi and Mamoru agreed, but she also had a second reason she kept to herself. If she was correct, that reason would present itself very soon despite her silence.

The quartet was frighteningly silent throughout the trip. The sandy blonde concentrated ferociously as she did her best to avoid the traffic and pedestrians while maintaining an incredible pace. Michiru was in the front passenger seat admiring the work of her lover while simultaneously contemplating what they would do upon arriving at the temple. In the rear, Setsuna was preparing the threads she would attach to Mamoru that would link the prince with the three senshi. Lastly, Mamoru was staring out the rear driver-side window surprisingly deep in thought about the welfare of his former love and whether she would survive the interlude before they could rescue her. That thought remained on his mind until it was rudely disrupted by the flash appearance in the corner of his eye of a familiar chestnut-hued ponytail falling down the back of an unusually tall girl.

"I think we should turn around!" Mamoru suddenly shouted, startling everyone in the car except Setsuna.

"Why?" Michiru asked in annoyance. "We have to hurry to the shrine. We don't have much time."

"That girl back there… I think it was Makoto," he said as he turned to peer through the back window. "Why she would be out here I don't know but I'm certain it was her."

"Are you sure you didn't confuse her—" Michiru fell silent when she heard the lower-pitched voice of her fellow senshi.

"I agree with Mamoru. We definitely should go back and see if that really is Makoto," Setsuna solemnly interjected.

"Whatever you say," Haruka muttered as she abruptly spun the sedan around in the middle of the street so that it pointed in the opposite direction without the time-consuming process of slowing down. Fortunately there weren't any other cars immediately nearby, especially those belonging to the local police.

"Did you really have to do that?" Mamoru exasperatedly asked as he was almost flung into Setsuna's lap.

"You said to turn around," the blonde nonchalantly replied, her eyes focused on the road ahead.

"Yeah, but I thought you would have been much calmer about it," he angrily retorted.

"Whatever. You should've braced yourself like everyone else," she smugly blurted while a slight smirk tugged at her lips.

Mamoru looked around and saw both the eminently graceful turquoise-haired woman giggling at him in the front seat while firmly holding onto the door handle. His eyes turned to the enigmatic green-haired lady beside him who was just then returning from her buttressed position to continue working with her spool of thread. Somehow, both of them knew exactly what Haruka was going to do and were well prepared. He huffed at the blonde's arrogance but knew he had no further argument.

After a short while they caught up to the girl Mamoru pointed out as the one that grabbed his attention. The car slowly came to a stop next to the brunette as she continued to walk, her eyes darting about as if she was searching for something. Setsuna lowered her window and called out to the teenage girl with an uncharacteristic shout.

"Excuse me… Kino-san, is it?"

The girl turned her eyes to the parked sedan and gave the mysterious woman a suspicious look. "How do you know my name?"

Mamoru pushed himself to the window, and immediately the distrustful expression faded and her eyes widened in recognition. "Makoto, we know what happened to Usagi," he bellowed.

She rushed to the side of the car so that she wouldn't have to yell. "Really?" she asked in a tone that relayed her overwhelming sense of optimism.

He slowly nodded and gestured for her to join them. "Get in. We're going to go rescue her," he said with unwavering resolve.

Mamoru and Setsuna slid over to allow space for the tall Makoto. It was a tight fit in the rear bench seat with the three large individuals in a car frankly designed to carry two astern. The advantage of their discomfort was that there was a lowered chance of being jostled about when Haruka inevitably decided to perform more of her aggressive driving techniques.

"I would strongly recommend that everyone buckle up and hold onto something," Michiru warned the three rear passengers, although the message mainly was directed at Makoto. It was excellent advice as a few seconds later, Haruka rapidly accelerated forward and pitched the car around, startling the brunette.

"What a way to introduce yourself to our new friend," Michiru teased, drawing a small huff from her otherwise intently focused partner.

"Wh-who are you guys?" Makoto nervously asked, though her apprehension was not due to the unfamiliar people around her.

"Please accept my apologies for not introducing ourselves earlier," Setsuna said with a courteous calm. "My name is Setsuna Meiou. The woman with the turquoise hair is Michiru Kaiou, and the driver is Haruka Tenou."

"Nice to meet you all," Makoto politely offered while giving small nods of greeting to Setsuna and Michiru. She paused for a few moments in deep contemplation before speaking once again. "I hate to sound rude, but how do you all know Usagi and what happened to her?" she asked.

"Well, we _are_ senshi, after all," Michiru replied with a warm grin.

"W-wait… There are more senshi?" a blatantly stunned Makoto asked.

"Yes," Setsuna tranquilly responded. "I'm Sailor Pluto, while Michiru is Neptune and Haruka is Uranus."

"But I thought only girls could be senshi," Makoto uttered while looking over at the suddenly smirking blonde.

"I don't see any men in this car besides myself," Mamoru said with a telling wink directed at the still-confused brunette.

Makoto snapped her head around and stared at the chuckling prince for several seconds before turning back to the blonde. Without any sense that she was doing so her face turned bright red as a massive blush of embarrassment enveloped her.

"Sorry if I disappointed you," Haruka said with a remarkably playful tone.

"N-no p-problem," Makoto stuttered with astonishing shyness as she slumped back into the seat.

"Anyway, I think we should inform Jupiter of our plan to rescue Usagi from the Dark Kingdom," Setsuna announced in a somber tone. After a curt nod from everyone in the car she continued. "I believe Queen Beryl's after two things. One of them is the Silver Crystal, which we think is in Usagi's transformation brooch that the remaining guardian senshi possess. The other thing I believe she's after is Endymion."

"What would she want with Mamoru?" Makoto asked in confusion.

"To exact revenge, namely for some events that occurred in the past life that I'll talk about at a later time," Setsuna said flatly. "In any case, I think that the best thing to do immediately is to get the Silver Crystal before she finds out where it is. After that, we use her desire for revenge against the prince to sneak into the Dark Kingdom and rescue the princess."

"And Usagi… is the princess?" the brunette innocently asked.

"Absolutely," Michiru firmly replied with a scowl.

"O-okay," Makoto said as she slouched even further into her seat and raised her hands in a defensive posture. She then lowered her head as a mood of dejection enshrouded her. "I have nothing against Usagi personally, and I feel absolutely sick for what I did to her," she whispered. "I, more than any of the other girls, want to find Usagi and make sure she's alright so that I can then plead for her forgiveness."

"We know," Setsuna said gently. "Mamoru told us already."

"So, we're going to the shrine?" Makoto anxiously asked after a brief pause.

"Yes. It's crucial that we get to the crystal first," Setsuna said.

"Well, I don't think I'm going to have much of a kind welcome given what I just did to them," Makoto said softly.

"Why? What happened between you and the other senshi?" Mamoru carefully asked.

"I… I almost killed Minako," the girl confessed in a soft, despondent whisper.

"_What?_" everyone except Haruka exclaimed in unison. Not to say the blonde wasn't equally stunned by the revelation, but she knew a lot more people might have been placed in similar straits if she lost focus driving so quickly in the rain.

"She's fine… I think," Makoto quickly added after their astonished shout. "She was still breathing when I left. But, I was afraid I may have gone too far."

"What prompted all of that?" Setsuna asked with great interest.

Makoto turned her narrowed jade-green eyes to the calmly waiting garnet pair. "They tried to do to me what they did to Usagi," she answered as a sudden fury welled up within her. "They wanted to take my transformation pen because I no longer thought of Usagi as a traitor and because I didn't hate Usagi the way they do." She failed to notice her trembling body when she spoke.

"We're here," Haruka curtly declared as the car abruptly came to a stop in front of the steps leading to Hikawa Shrine.

"Well… are you okay with seeing them again?" Setsuna asked sympathetically.

Makoto took a deep breath that she slowly exhaled before responding. "I'm not in any mood to see them, but somebody has to show them that Usagi isn't alone," she said with absolute and frightening resolve before pushing open the door and stepping from the car.

—|1|2|3|4|**5**|—

Usagi stared at the powerfully evil woman before her with surprisingly calm eyes as she listened to Beryl conclude her tale. She really didn't partake in the conversation, instead preferring to listen to the self-appointed queen essentially lecture her. Unlike any of the long-winded lessons her teachers gave, Beryl's speech was quite short at about fifteen minutes in length. But to the pigtailed blonde, it ranked highly among the most compelling fifteen minutes she had experienced in her fourteen years of life. Enthralling, even. And that was the reason she knew she was making a terrible mistake, because during the course of the account she felt something she never expected or desired to feel toward her nemesis: _sympathy_. Her mind knew that it was a mistake to pay any attention to that drivel, which likely was completely untrue. But it was too late for her heart, which fell completely for the story of the queen's unfortunate plight. Without both parts of her soul united in defiance, her resistance against Beryl would fail.

"So, Princess, do you now understand what agony I was forced to endure without Endymion and without the kingdom I was supposed to rule?" Beryl asked in the miserable, dejected voice of someone suffering deep emotional wounds.

"I… I do," Usagi tentatively replied in a soft, almost gentle whisper. Her mind, as well as some other part of her spirit, yelled the opposite, but their voices didn't quite register with her.

"Can you help me, then?" Beryl pleaded. "Can you help me end my heartache by giving me the Silver Crystal?"

"I…"

Usagi hesitated as the desperate complaints of her rational mind finally overpowered the substantial empathy from her heart. _"What am I doing? Am I really going to give up everything just because Beryl told me some sappy story?"_ she thought as she chastised herself. _"She shouldn't deserve any pity. No, she doesn't deserve it, no matter how sad she looks. If I give in, then everyone I truly love is doomed. Everyone!"_ The blonde fidgeted with her fingers in her hands and looked down at her feet for several more moments before giving an answer.

"I can't," she finally mumbled in a shaky voice.

"But you said you understood my pain," the woman said louder and with a much harsher tone.

"I can't give you the crystal," Usagi reiterated with more resolve.

Suddenly the queen stood to her feet and glared at her captive with fiery, hate-filled eyes. Her countenance contained an expression of unmistakable anger that terrified Usagi despite her knowledge of the woman's true emotions. She swiped a hand across her body, and the bracelets on the blonde's wrists and ankles immediately snapped together. No amount of struggling could separate the two, and Usagi knew her period of free movement had come to an end.

"Don't you understand, Princess? I was trying to make this easy for you!" Beryl shouted as she towered over the younger girl. "However, you had to be obstinate and ruin everything! Just like you ruined everything and the lives of thousands—no, millions—of people in the past including mine!"

"That wasn't my fault," Usagi defiantly whispered.

"You could have saved so many people back then just by doing one simple thing!" Beryl continued in her tirade, ignoring the faint denial. "And now… now you could have prevented so many deaths by doing one simple thing, and yet you refused to do it! You could have saved your precious Luna! You could have saved that silly little photographer Mariko, her partner, and all of those girls in the studio!"

"_Wait, they're all gone too? _All _of them?"_ Usagi thought as she involuntarily cringed at the notion of the multitude of souls that were captured at the photo studio without her knowledge.

"And, most importantly, you could have spared Mercury her painful death!" Beryl contemptuously exclaimed. "All you had to do was surrender yourself and hand over the Silver Crystal to us. I was fully prepared to be merciful toward you. Despite your earlier belligerence, I would have allowed you and your friends to live in peace as you would have provided me the peace I desired. But, as usual, you like to ruin everything, and now I've become desperate."

Beryl slowly stepped away from the petite girl's trembling figure and turned her back to her before releasing a lengthy sigh. "Do you remember when you asked me what I was going to do to you, and I told you it depended on you and your actions?" she asked in a softer voice full of disappointment. Before Usagi could provide any response the woman continued. "I absolutely need the Silver Crystal from you, and I'm going to get it, one way or another. It's entirely up to you how painful the process is, not just for you but for me and other innocent people you selfishly refuse to save."

"What other people?" Usagi tentatively asked. In her mind she feared the answer would match the horrific visions that, despite some small changes in timing and scenery, had come to fruition in its entirety up to that point. She hoped and prayed she was wrong and that maybe there was one last-second way to escape that terrible fate.

The queen's fearsome eyes that so maliciously glared at her seemed to exude a red glow that gradually extinguished the girl's minute optimism. Her lips were pulled into a small but utterly wicked smirk, one that Usagi knew would haunt her if she was lucky enough to survive and escape her captivity.

"I hate to inform you, Princess, that your pathetic attempt to move your family without our knowledge has failed," she said with a derisive chuckle. She waved her hand again, causing a flash of gold light and the sudden appearance of three hospital gurneys, each containing the body of a person Usagi intimately knew.

"_Mom! Dad! Shingo!"_ Usagi thought in abject horror when she saw the faces of her apparently unconscious family members lying on the beds. She couldn't see much more of their bodies as they were covered by pure white bed sheets, but those unmoving visages were enough to send her to near-hysterics. Tears welled in her dimmed and lifeless eyes and flowed unrestrained down her pale cheeks. Her entire body began to convulse uncontrollably. She desperately wanted to cry out in terror and agony. However, the best she could do was to make a slight whimper as she fell from the chair to her knees.

"You will give me the Silver Crystal," Beryl harshly declared, "and I assure you that you will dearly regret it if you rebuff me." A long, silver dagger appeared in her hand and was placed disturbingly close to the heart of the ostensible form of Usagi's father.

"I… I… I can't give you the crystal," Usagi stammered.

"That's too unfortunate," Beryl sneered as she raised her hand and plunged the dagger into the body with staggering force. A spot of bright crimson formed almost immediately and spread with alarming speed when the blade penetrated through the thin cover. Usagi's bound hands shot up to her face as the ghastly, piercing scream that was stifled before effortlessly flowed from her mouth.

"Now, Princess, I will ask you again," Beryl said with a smirk as the woman and her blood-stained dagger shifted to the bed containing the slightly smaller form of Usagi's mother.

"I'm sorry… but…" Usagi started to stammer in a tear-choked whisper before pausing. What could she possibly say? As far as she knew she didn't have the crystal in her possession. It was an inadvertent advantage so long as she was the only one involved, as she had hoped. However, she could see that wasn't the case anymore, and the seizure of her brooch and crystal was the worst thing that could have happened.

"I'm also sorry that you forced me to do this," Beryl interjected as she pushed the blade deep into the chest of the female form. Much like the first strike the sheet instantaneously went from pale white to a sickeningly vivid red. Usagi fell to the floor, awash in her tears, as she felt a tortuous pain that far exceeded anything she felt when she was restrained in the chilling darkness of the containment chamber.

"You have one last opportunity to give me the crystal," Beryl said in a tone full of disdain.

Usagi looked up and saw through blurry and almost completely vacant eyes the ghastly form of the woman and her dagger hovering over the far smaller figure she interpreted to be her brother Shingo. She desperately searched for some way to spare him the fate from which she failed, in her mind, to rescue her parents.

"_I can't give her the crystal, no matter how much she needs it,"_ she thought. _"But if I don't, Shingo will die, and then all of this won't be worth it anymore. I might as well be dead myself. What do I do? What do I do…?"_

"Well…" Beryl demanded as she slowly lowered the dagger closer to the boy's chest.

Usagi saw the blade steadily inch toward the last thing she truly considered valuable. She had to give an answer, and fast. She faintly sensed the passionate pleading of a voice within her soul telling her to stay strong, to ignore the queen's demands, and to continue resisting. However, that meek voice was overpowered by her heart and her mind, both of which were utterly devastated by the scenes of death in front of her, deaths that could have been prevented.

"_I… I can't let this go on. I have to at least tell her the truth, that I don't have the crystal,"_ she lamented in her thoughts. _"Hopefully she'll understand."_

"Last chance, Princess," the woman mockingly announced as the tip of her blade almost touched the sheet.

"I… I…" Usagi started in a nervous stammer before finally building the strength to speak. "I don't have the crystal."

"You don't? Well, why didn't you just say that before?" Beryl asked with confusion that sounded real enough to the blonde. Her tone then shifted to the contempt she previously and quite blatantly revealed. "You know, you have a real talent for making people suffer. Your dad, your mom… they would still be alive if it weren't for you. Many more precious humans would still live if it weren't for you."

The woman slowly pushed herself from the bed and sauntered toward Usagi, stopping only a few feet from the cowering blonde. She fought so hard to hide the telling smirk that threatened to creep onto her lips, replacing it with a discontented scowl. She bent to her knees and lifted the despondent girl's chin with her free hand, the dagger still tightly gripped in her other. The gaze of her red eyes never departed their sullen blue counterparts as she brought her lips close to her nemesis's ear.

"You've forced me to do things that I absolutely did not want to do, and I hate you for it. This planet would be so much better without your existence," she flatly whispered. Beryl then dropped her grasp of Usagi's chin and backed away from the stunned girl. "Now, will you help me?"

Usagi looked up at the queen with completely dead eyes, her soul absolutely exhausted and any further idea of resistance completely quashed. "Yes," the utterly defeated girl replied with that single word.

"Do you promise?"

"Yes!" Usagi forcefully answered, unwilling to fathom what would occur if she gave the opposite response.

"Good. Now where is the crystal?" the woman asked in a demanding but less harsh tone.

"It's within my transformation brooch," Usagi morosely whispered.

"So it's with the other senshi," Beryl said. "It should be easy enough to find then, since we know where they congregate." She paced about the room, seemingly mired in thought, before abruptly stopping and staring into space. When she spoke again, her voice curiously lacked any hint of pretentiousness. "You know, Princess, I bet you're wondering if there is any way to undo all of this and bring your mom and dad back so that they can live."

Usagi gave a faint nod of her head in agreement as she stared at the pair of beds containing what she knew to be the lifeless forms of her parents.

"I have been thinking the same thing," Beryl pensively said, her eyes locked on a blank spot of the wall. "I do know of a way to revive them using the Silver Crystal, but it's a unique power only you possess. I do not have that capability no matter how powerful I become. The problem is it's impossible for you to do that while keeping your promise to help me. That's quite the conundrum, isn't it?"

"_Yes,"_ Usagi thought but didn't say, at least not loud enough to be heard by the imposing queen. It didn't matter as the woman continued to speak despite the lack of her answer.

"There is one more way that you can save them. A way you can save everybody, as a matter of fact, while keeping your promise to me," Beryl said with just a hint of optimism carried in her voice that faded with her next sentence. "However, knowing you, you'd rather have everyone suffer than do something that you know will help them."

"No, I don't want anyone to suffer," Usagi retorted in a despondent whisper.

"Is that so?" the woman scoffed. "Are you truly willing to save others now, even when it may cost you your own life?"

"Absolutely," Usagi almost yelled with amazing resolve. "I- I can't take any more of this agony. I'll do anything. Just tell me what it is."

"Very well," Beryl relented. "I'll tell you what it is you need to do." She then walked over to Shingo's bed and plunged the dagger into his chest, eliciting a pained scream from the blonde. "That was to make sure you don't have anything that prompts you to change your mind," she sardonically uttered as the smirk she withheld from earlier spread across her lips.

The vacant sapphire-blue eyes that stared at the queen did not contain anger, despite the horror they just witnessed. Instead they only relayed unmitigated sadness.

"Don't worry, Princess. They will be perfectly fine so long as you do that which you know you must do." The nominal disdain carried by her tone went unnoticed by the blonde.

Usagi stared forlornly at the undeniably evil queen for several seconds. "What should I do?" she whispered.

Beryl walked to the crouched form of the princess and bent down next to her once more. "You have to go back and make everything right again," she said simply and in a voice that carried no apparent anger.

"Make… everything… right… again…?" Usagi stammered with uncertainty.

"Remember, your very existence caused so much misery in the past life for the Silver Millennium and the Kingdom of Earth. But you can go back and correct that one mistake and, by doing so, save countless numbers of people here and on the Moon," Beryl whispered with an astonishingly gentle tone.

"My existence caused all of this?" Usagi pitifully whispered.

"Yes. But you know exactly what you can do to correct everything," the queen softly replied.

Usagi looked into Beryl's patient eyes, then past her tall figure to the trio of beds and the blood-stained sheets. Her empathetic heart told her that she absolutely needed to do it if it truly enabled reviving everyone who died in the past and the present due to the conflict she was convinced she caused. Her rational mind warned of the obvious paradox that would be created if she carried out the woman's wish. However, she had already decided. Her thoughts of her parents and brother, of Ami, of Luna, of Mariko, and, most telling, of Queen Serenity and everyone she could remember during the Silver Millennium provoked her decision. She cast her somber eyes toward the queen one last time.

"I'll do it. If it fixes everything and brings them back, I'll do it," she said in low but unwavering voice.

"For once in your life you have made the best choice," Beryl said as she rested her hand upon the girl's shoulder. "I'll have Kunzite retrieve the brooch and crystal for you."

Usagi nodded as fresh tears streamed down her cheeks. She accepted the queen's assistance in lifting herself to her feet and allowed the woman to steady her and guide her out of the room. If she wasn't so emotionally distraught, she would have recognized the prime opportunity that regaining possession of her transformation brooch would have provided her. However, she had placed far greater value in what she perceived as ending the conflict by preventing its very start than in defeating Beryl during the present era. She was absolutely convinced it was the one action that would ensure the survival and happiness of everyone she loved both in the past and in the present. To her compassionate soul there was nothing more important. That was the mindset that prompted her to agree to Beryl's one wish: to eliminate from all eternity her very own existence.


	34. Convergence

**Chapter 34: Convergence**

The tall, white-haired general coolly walked up to the bank of levers, buttons, and keypads that composed the control panel for the Alternate Reality Chamber. In his hand was a stack of papers, neatly organized into manila folders, holding key information about the civilian family of the hated princess. The sheets contained a myriad of data including their names, vital statistics, dates of key events in their lives, places of schooling, and much, much more. However, the most important thing the files contained was photographs—a multitude of photographs. He placed the folders on a small table next to the panel and removed the one that held the photos.

"I guess from these we're supposed to construct some sort of convincing analogue of the princess's family?" Kunzite incredulously asked with a bit of a huff. "It probably would have been easier to hunt them down and capture them after all."

"I told you so," Sazaratha mumbled with dripping sarcasm.

"What was that?" Kunzite asked, partly in an automatic sense of antagonism but mostly because he failed to recognize what it was she was referencing.

"You were so convinced that it was a huge mistake that I failed to kill those pesky humans. But now it turned out not to be such a bad thing, didn't it?" the blonde said as she turned a lively smirk to the irate man.

"For your information, you agreed with me that it was better to kill them," he retorted as he furiously glared at her with narrowed eyes. "Furthermore, we can't actually find them, so their continued survival doesn't help us anymore."

"And whose bright idea was it to quit following the princess's family when I informed you that they were moving? Hmmm?"

"If you thought it was so important to track them you could've done it yourself."

"Maybe so, but then who else was going to find and capture the princess? Certainly not you. Even if you did find her, all she'd do is kick your ass yet again."

"It wasn't my mission to kill her, just to keep her occupied," he muttered through clenched teeth. He was doing his best to contain his mounting anger amid his partner's acerbic barbs and prevent her from getting the reaction he knew she desired. It was immensely difficult when both of them knew she was right and he was wrong.

"Yeah, keep telling yourself that," she said as her grin widened.

"Whatever." He expelled an exacerbated sigh. "Let's just get this done so that Beryl can do whatever it is she wants to do with them."

He ignored Sazaratha's victorious chuckles as he picked up the folder full of photos from the table and flipped through a few of them, occasionally stopping to study some of the more useful pictures. Despite having knowledge of the physical appearance of the princess's family—he had displayed a hologram of them to Sazaratha when assigning her that ultimately successful mission—it was insufficient to create a life-like and convincing three-dimensional model. The photos he had culled from multiple sources were better suited for that task. Beyond containing full-body images of the three, there were objects of known size to which the targets could be compared. A proper sense of scale was essential for their task, and creating a model that was too tall or too short would have jeopardized their mission.

"I think these will work for the older man," he said as he fed the photos through a device that conspicuously appeared to be an ordinary scanner.

"Are you sure about that?" she smugly asked. "You were oh so certain about the princess's identity too, you know."

"This is different, as they don't have any energy signatures that can change over time," he replied matter-of-factly without daring to peer in her direction and glimpse whatever haughty grin she might have displayed.

She fed him a sly wink. "I'm just making sure you don't screw this one up."

Kunzite spent the next few minutes loading various photographs of the princess's father, mother, and younger brother into the scanner, all the while doing his best to ignore Sazaratha's needling. Someone might have confused their incessant arguments with lovers' spats, but in reality the two did not get along. They barely tolerated one another, and only for the sake of the mutual goal for which they both fought. Furthermore, the two sides needed each other. Metalia's forces needed the skills of the Dark Kingdom in acquiring energy to resurrect their queen, and the Dark Kingdom required the overwhelming power of Metalia to dominate the planet. That placed Kunzite and Sazaratha in close proximity for most of the time that they battled the senshi. Unlike the captured princess and her prince (that is, before the previous month), their relationship hadn't warmed and developed beyond their constant bickering.

"Hmm, that looks… interesting," Sazaratha mumbled as the hologram displayed a wire frame of a person that vaguely appeared to be the princess's father. She picked up one of the photos and stared at it for several seconds before shifting her gaze back to the hologram.

"Once the skin is added it should look a lot more like him," Kunzite replied. He pressed a few buttons on the control pad and within seconds the wire frame was covered by a more realistic covering that mimicked the brown suit from one of the photos.

"That's more like it." She was about to give a wide grin of satisfaction but suddenly paused as she realized something was seriously off. "Wouldn't it be too suspicious to have them uninjured?"

He thought for a few moments, his eyes narrowing as he stared at the hologram. "You have a point. They were in a hospital after all, recovering from your failed attack."

"Heh," she said curtly and with annoyance. She turned and glared at the suddenly smirking general. "Anyway, go find something that makes them look injured, damnit!" she commanded with a growl.

"Why don't you? You were the one who sent them there, after all," he suggested with a mixture of conceit and disdain in his voice as he returned her glare. "Hell, you were the one who went to the hospital when her family was still there, so I would think you would know."

Suddenly both Kunzite and Sazaratha simultaneously felt sharp pains in their minds as each received a telepathic message from Beryl.

"_I can sense an inane argument brewing, so I order you two to halt your bickering immediately,"_ Beryl angrily conveyed to them before quickly becoming relatively calm. _"Anyway, I am transporting the princess to the room right now and should arrive in a few minutes. I want you to create a comfortable and far cheerier environment than what we typically have around here, but nothing too flashy. Also, we'll be having dinner, baked chicken in this case, so make sure that's prepared as well."_

"_You're having dinner with the princess?"_ a stunned Kunzite asked. _"Are you deciding to show her leniency?"_

"_I know what I'm doing, Kunzite. Now do what I asked of you,"_ Beryl snapped.

"_As you wish, your highness,"_ Kunzite obediently responded across the mental link.

"_By the way, what is the status of our contingency plan?"_ Beryl expectantly asked a few seconds later.

"_We have the models created, but somebody forgot they were injured,"_ Sazaratha sarcastically answered.

"_Well, if they're injured, then I'm _sure_ you can figure out a way to display them,"_ Beryl said with far greater derision. _"I can already think of a pretty simple way of solving that, but _I'm_ not the one at the controls. If you want to demonstrate your value to us and prove your rank then you had better come up with a solution, and quickly."_

"_Very well, your highness,"_ Sazaratha wearily replied before the telepathic connection to Beryl was terminated.

"It looks like you have some work to do," Kunzite said with his trademark smirk directed at the fuming blonde.

She glowered at him with indigo eyes almost turning red, much like the rest of her, but miraculously she managed to resist blowing up at the man. Besides, she was the one given the vital task of correcting Kunzite's mistake, meaning that Beryl had given some amount of trust in her competence. That had to count for something. She decided, instead of engaging in more of useless squabbling, she would make the most of her opportunity to stamp her influence on the Dark Kingdom.

—|1|**2**|3|4|5|6|7|—

The rain fell with even greater intensity as the four frighteningly resolute women and an equally determined Mamoru carefully ran up the slippery steps leading to Hikawa Shrine. Their singular mission was to reclaim the transformation brooch for Usagi before finding a location to enact their plan for entering the Dark Kingdom. Surprisingly, Makoto was the most eager to see her former friends, if only to demonstrate to them how horribly incorrect they were in abandoning Usagi. Otherwise, she wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere remotely close to the temple. The three new senshi, never having met any of the guardian senshi aside from Makoto, were far less interested in the occupants than the item they held in their possession.

"So this is where you guys usually met with one another?" Setsuna solemnly asked.

Makoto slowly nodded. "It's also where Rei lives with her grandfather," she replied with latent anger evident in her tone.

"Rei is Sailor Mars, I assume?" Michiru asked, with a nod from the brunette as confirmation of her inference.

The quintet reached the top of the steps and walked through the courtyard. A small spot of dark red remained along the stone walkway from the earlier confrontation Makoto had with the two guardian senshi, but it was quickly being washed away by the rain. She shivered slightly upon the sight but otherwise maintained her composure as they walked to the door. She glanced over her shoulder at the other senshi and Mamoru patiently standing behind her before she raised her hand and delivered a pair of sharp raps on the wood door. A few moments later the door slid open and a sullen raven-haired girl appeared at the threshold wearing her typical red-and-white priestess robes.

"I'm sorry, but we're—_you_!" Rei said, at first dolefully and almost robotically as she started to inform them that the temple was not offering charms or any other of its normal services that afternoon. However, when she finally recognized the tall Makoto, her eyes widened in shock and she immediately became enraged.

"Hello to you, too," Makoto said with blatant disdain.

A part of Rei's consciousness wanted to launch straight into attacking the larger brunette, but her rational mind ruled that out. She couldn't take yet another beating from an obviously stronger foe. However, she was utterly determined to relieve Makoto of her transformation pen, per the desires of her leader. As she was clearly overpowered by the girl in a normal fight, her only recourse was to transform and hope that her magic was stronger. She quickly reached into her pocket and extracted her own pen to do exactly that. However, a strong hand grasped her arm before she could lift the pen over her head and exclaim the necessary incantation. Another equally toned arm wrapped around her waist and pinned her other arm to her body.

"Hey, I wouldn't do that if I were you," Haruka said with a wry smirk on her lips as she restrained the struggling shrine maiden.

Rei's eyes widened further as she finally realized that Makoto was not alone. She was there with Mamoru, two stunningly beautiful older women completely unknown to her, and someone she perceived as a man with sandy-blond hair who was getting on her nerves but otherwise was quite attractive.

"Let me go!" Rei demanded as she twisted her body in a futile attempt to release her arm from the tight grip of the blonde.

"Not until you calm down," the woman with turquoise hair harshly replied.

"You're actually pretty cute," Haruka said to Rei as the squirming girl continued her useless attempt to free herself. "If you weren't so misguided you'd be far more tempting."

"Haruka!" Michiru irately yelled as she glared at her lover. Haruka merely shrugged when she saw the piercing expression of annoyance in eyes she otherwise considered quite lovely.

"Rei, we're not here to hurt you," Mamoru said calmly as he cautiously approached the shrine maiden. "All we're after is Usagi's transformation brooch, and—" he momentarily paused to think about what to say next— "and to try one more time to convince you that the Usagi you hate really is the princess you strive to protect."

That line elicited a curious stare from both Haruka and Michiru, who weren't expecting the group to do anything more than take the brooch and leave. The enigmatic Setsuna, however, held a strangely calm expression on her face as she instead addressed an infuriated Rei.

"We promise you that we mean the two of you absolutely no harm, for we are senshi, just like you," she said with amazing composure. Rei's body immediately relaxed as she stood there in stunned silence. "There is much that you and Venus desperately need to know, but we don't have much time. So, may we please come in so that we can talk?"

Rei blinked a few times before slowly nodding her head. "You may," she started in a slightly resigned tone that soon became more aggressive, "but if you even attempt anything to hurt me or Minako again, I swear—"

"Nothing like that will happen if you don't attack me," Makoto interjected as she turned a fierce stare toward the fiery shrine maiden.

"Okay, okay… I get it," Rei begrudgingly relented. Haruka released her grip of the girl's arms and allowed her to return the transformation pen to her pocket but continued to stare at her with a blatant expression of suspicion as the group trudged into the temple.

—|1|2|**3**|4|5|6|7|—

Kunzite turned a bewildered glance to Sazaratha as the pair witnessed their esteemed queen speak so… _tenderly_ to the hated princess. It utterly baffled him as he had no earthly clue what Beryl could have been thinking. They had the captured the princess and were so close to their ultimate victory. All they had to do was kill her and be done with it. Instead, his leader was treating the girl to dinner—albeit a fake dinner given her location, but to the princess's senses and her stomach it was as real as anything.

"What is she doing?" Kunzite asked as he stared at the hologram portraying the conversation between the red-haired woman and younger blonde.

"It seems like she's softening up the princess," Sazaratha nonchalantly answered, not even bothering to look toward the silver-haired general. She was too busy putting the finishing touches on her new models.

"'Softening up the princess?' What do you mean?" he asked, turning yet another perplexed stare toward the uninterested blonde.

"You'll find out soon enough," she responded with a wry grin.

Kunzite huffed and averted his gaze from the infuriating woman, turning his eyes to the constantly shifting translucent image of Beryl and the princess displayed in the hologram. He saw an expression settle upon the face of his queen that he could never recall seeing during the entirety of his service to her. Mixed in with the disdain and arrogance was a guise of compassion that, quite frankly, scared the general. No enemy should ever deserve such kindness, especially one as fierce as the princess. He respected the princess as a worthy adversary, but he never would have allowed her quite that level of warmth, especially not after spending most of his recent existence with the singular goal of killing her. His queen had that same goal: she was the one who assigned him the very mission. And yet, when he was so close to attaining the ultimate triumph, it appeared she had disregarded the mission and the entire reason they had fought against the girl and her allies for so long. If he were in the vaunted position that the queen enjoyed, the last thing he would have done was to feed his nemesis and initiate anything remotely resembling a friendly conversation.

"A conclusion that also helps the princess? Unfathomable…" Kunzite muttered as he listened to the start of the mostly one-sided conversation occurring within the other room.

"Yeah, that was a mistake," Sazaratha said, not quite in response to the general's words but he was none the wiser.

"I agree," Kunzite excitedly responded. "Why would Beryl begin telling—"

"I'm talking about the princess," she exasperatedly interjected. The pale blonde shuffled around from her busy console to glare at the astounded man. "Seriously, do none of you so-called _generals_ know anything about tactics and strategy?"

"And I bet you're an expert in strategy, then," a clearly offended Kunzite furiously countered. "Could you have achieved the same amount of success we've achieved all by yourself in fighting off the senshi and discovering the princess?"

"Maybe," she coolly replied, brushing off his question and clearly infuriating the man even more. "What I do know is I was the one who found the girl captured her, not any of you."

"With our help!" he irately retorted.

"So you think," she smugly responded before turning back to her control panel and away from a general on the verge of exploding with fury. "Anyway, I have a certain family I need to finish constructing from scratch really soon and I'm too busy to continue this pointless discussion." Her lips gradually pulled themselves into a tight smirk. "So it might help if you were to shut the hell up and watch your queen work. Who knows, you just might learn a thing or two."

As much as he fervently desired to gain the upper hand over that annoying demon in his verbal battle, Kunzite instead chose, quite wisely, to put his anger aside and continue his observation of the proceedings. He saw his eminent queen display so much sickening warmth and compassion to the princess during her short speech. The blonde merely sat in calm attentiveness the entire time, staring at the red-haired woman with awe. He didn't know what to make of that scene beyond what he originally assumed. However, as his queen ended her soliloquy, he noticed something he had originally overlooked in the woman's demeanor. Her tone was one of someone who was deeply hurt, and that may have been true considering what little he knew of her personal history. However, the queen also exuded an astounding amount of confidence for a person supposedly feeling sorrow and pleading for the princess's assistance. Suddenly the entire mood of the conversation shifted from sympathy to overwhelming resentment. He displayed a small grin, reveling in his queen's apparent return to normal. Yet there was something different about her ire that caused the smile to fade away. The queen's words to the hated princess surely contained immense vitriol, yet it was substantially different from what he anticipated. She sounded more like one mired in disappointment, and her words reflected that sentiment. He didn't quite know what to make of that.

"And that's where I come in," Sazaratha haughtily uttered while pushing one last button on her console. In that instant a trio of hospital gurneys appeared in the hologram, each one containing what appeared to be a member of the princess's family lying comatose. Only their heads were exposed while the rest of their bodies were hidden by crisp white sheets.

"That's your solution? To sweep away the fact that you can't quite make a convincing model by covering them up in sheets?" Kunzite condescendingly asked.

"If you had a better one you could have said something earlier," Sazaratha harshly replied. "Instead you were busy going on about the queen making a mistake and trying to stroke your own ego. Anyway, you'll see this will work just fine."

Kunzite huffed, clearly disbelieving of his blond colleague's assertion until he saw abject fear overtake the young princess. In her dismay she must not have realized the obvious differences between the figures underneath those sheets and the true appearances of her family members. He stared in silence at the motions within the hologram, watching the slow collapse of the princess's defiance as first one and then another white sheet was stained crimson by the queen's dagger. At that point he slowly began to understand and appreciate what Sazaratha had told him about Beryl's curious actions. He continued to watch in awe of his queen's brilliant work up to the time the woman led the utterly devastated girl from the chamber. Once they departed he turned off the holographic display and leaned against the console, staring up into the dimly lit ceiling with wide eyes.

"I can't believe that Beryl just convinced the princess to kill herself for us," Kunzite uttered in pure astonishment. "No… even better… She actually convinced the girl to eliminate herself from all of time and existence for our purposes."

"What? You're surprised?" Sazaratha sarcastically asked as she pushed herself up from the seat and prepared to travel to her personal quarters.

"You _knew_ that was going to happen?" Kunzite disbelievingly asked.

"No, but it made sense. She was lulling the girl into quite a sense of security that whatever the queen was planning had to be quite huge," the blonde nonchalantly replied. "What surprised me was how easily the princess took the bait."

"Now I guess all we have to do is go and grab the brooch from the other senshi and all will be complete," he said as a smirk erupted across his lips.

"I don't know where you got this 'we' business from, as she clearly singled _you_ out for this mission," she responded in an annoyed tone that soon transformed into a more scathing voice. "And it should be a pretty simple task, assuming you don't let those three girls kick your ass in the same way you allowed the princess to do."

Before Kunzite could retort to yet another taunt both he and the aggravating blonde felt within their minds the unmistakable sensation of Beryl's telepathy.

"_Kunzite, I want you to go obtain the princess's transformation brooch, and with it the Silver Crystal,"_ she said in a commanding tone. _"It is at Hikawa Shrine and is guarded by two senshi, one of whom is not in any condition to fight according to Zoisite."_

"_Only two?"_ Kunzite asked in puzzlement. _"What happened? I thought there were three remaining senshi."_

"_Their pathetic group is falling apart as we speak,"_ Beryl haughtily replied before shifting to a more serious tone. _"There is a much larger story regarding their self-destruction, but time is of the essence,"_ she said. _"Several precious minutes already have passed since I received that update, so you should go there immediately before we lose what little advantage we may have."_

"_As you wish, your highness,"_ Kunzite acknowledged.

"_Oh, and Sazaratha, you're going as well,"_ Beryl quickly added. _"You'll be providing support for Kunzite as I have a feeling that, despite their poor conditions, the senshi will not be in the mood to surrender the brooch so easily."_

"_Very well,"_ Sazaratha begrudgingly answered.

"_I expect to see both of you here with the brooch and the crystal soon,"_ Beryl said ominously before she terminated the link.

"Well, it looks like you're going with me after all," a smug Kunzite said to the blatantly displeased blonde.

"Only because she clearly doesn't have enough faith in you to handle the job yourself," Sazaratha snapped.

Kunzite expelled a heavy, frustrated sigh. "Okay, okay… whatever," he resignedly replied. "We can't be bickering like this when we're so close to getting the crystal and ending this conflict. So, I suggest we put this argument aside for the meantime and concentrate on defeating the senshi as a unit."

Sazaratha stared at the solemn expression the general gave before releasing her own calming sigh. "Fine by me," she said while delivering a curt nod that was promptly returned by Kunzite.

With their arguments temporarily halted for the sake of their new mission the two immediately disappeared from the room in a furious burst of brilliant gold light, leaving behind two trailing wisps of black smoke. The only question in their minds was how long the truce would survive before it devolved into their regular bouts of squabbling.

—|1|2|3|**4**|5|6|7|—

The sextet made their way into the main living room of the temple, an intimately familiar site for Makoto but a completely new scene for the others, including Mamoru. He had never been inside the temple, nor had he any reason to visit the girls there. Before he learned the secret identity of the girls, and before they figured out he was Tuxedo Kamen, they had always met at Crown. That habit continued even after the veils hiding their alter-egos were lifted. Besides, it was awkward enough for him to be constantly seen with a gaggle of fourteen-year-old girls in public, let alone the fact that he eventually fell in love with two of them. In any case it wasn't an expressly ornate room but was rather warm and cozy, especially with the presence of more visitors than usual. It was also especially dark as the window shades were pulled shut and the lights were turned off. Only the sparse light filtering in from the hallway allowed them to see anything at all.

"Why is it so dark in here?" Makoto innocently asked as she stepped into the room.

"It seems it's better for Minako," Rei answered in a callous whisper. "I'm surprised she woke up at all after what you did to her."

"What I did to her? Nothing would have happened to her if you didn't try to take my transformation pen," the brunette angrily and more loudly retorted.

A soft moan from the far side of the room interrupted the girls' budding argument and immediately captured their attention along with that of everyone else. They quickly determined that the groan came from Minako, who was awakened by the sudden noises and shouting.

"Wh-what's going on here? Who's there?" Minako whispered. She lifted her head and attempted to gaze at the shadowy figures milling around her but immediately shut her eyes as even the minute light from the hall was sufficient to blind her.

"I don't mean to intrude, Venus, especially when you're trying to recover from such a serious injury," Setsuna said gently as she slowly approached the prone blonde who was shocked by the disclosure of her senshi identity by the strange woman. "Please allow me to introduce our group. My name is Setsuna Meiou, but you can call me Sailor Pluto."

"Sailor… Pluto?" Minako asked with an air of confusion as she slowly opened her eyes and forced them to focus on the murky figure of the tall woman with dark-green hair. The revelation elicited a similar perplexed stare from Rei.

"Yes," Setsuna replied evenly, "and the other two are Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune." She pointed to the two women standing alongside her.

Minako closed her eyes yet again as the pain was too much for her and was threatening to rekindle her nausea. Not using her eyes benefited her, however, as she better able to perceive the faint energy that radiated from the three women. She could sense that they weren't enemies from the Dark Kingdom, and thus their presence was not threatening. Furthermore, after several seconds of meditation she realized that their signatures were quite familiar, feeling as though she had experienced them once before even though it was her first time physically meeting the trio.

"If you are all senshi, why haven't I met any of you before?" Minako asked distrustfully. She ignored her pain as she pushed herself up from the soft mattress and into a sitting position. "Why are you showing up all of a sudden right now?"

Setsuna took a deep breath before she gave the answer that she knew would infuriate the blonde. "We're here to take back the princess's transformation brooch," she finally responded in a firm tone and while giving the girl an equally resolute stare.

"If you're talking about Usagi, she's definitely not the princess," Minako flatly replied. "The real princess doesn't have a transformation brooch."

"I figured you would say something like that," Setsuna said somewhat resignedly.

"Come on… give it up already!" Haruka impatiently shouted as she placed her hands on her hips. "It's not like we have all day to rescue her."

"We really need the brooch before the Dark Kingdom finds it," Michiru tersely added.

Before Minako could retort she was interrupted by a flash of golden light so bright it easily penetrated the window shades. That explosion of light was succeeded by a hauntingly dark sensation that Setsuna immediately recognized. She whispered something to Haruka and Michiru and gave a quick parting message to the other senshi before grabbing Mamoru by his elbow and harshly ushering him from the room. The short-haired blonde and her turquoise-haired partner quickly followed their enigmatic colleague, collecting Makoto along the way, leaving the remaining two senshi absolutely stunned by the rapid departure. However, their shock was rudely interrupted by the outer door slamming open with a reverberating thud. It was followed by the unmistakable clacks of a pair of footsteps quickly approaching the living quarters.

"Minako, we need to get out of here!" Rei shouted as she attempted to lift her wounded leader to her feet. Before she could even steady the blonde a tall and imposing man with silver hair stood at the door.

"And just where do you ladies think you're going?" the man haughtily asked as his lips pulled themselves into a wry smirk.

Minako's eyes widened in horror as soon as she recognized who it was that blocked their path. "Kunzite…" she whispered in a shaky voice.

"You'd better leave now if you don't want to get hurt!" Rei yelled with unmitigated fury.

"If you knew the situation you were in then you wouldn't be making such idle threats," Kunzite sarcastically replied. "Besides, with your 'leader' so clearly injured there's no way you'd be able to defeat us by yourself."

The shrine maiden stopped in her tracks when she heard the cryptic response. "Wait… 'us'?" she asked in bewilderment.

An exquisitely gorgeous woman with long, wavy blond hair and wearing a dress that may have been too elegant for the impending situation pushed herself past the uniformed general. She stared at the two girls with narrowed eyes that were just as eager to witness the implied confrontation as they were to see their mission completed to plan. A haunting smile crept onto her lips as she spoke.

"Yes… _us_," was her single, sardonically delivered reply.

—|1|2|3|4|**5**|6|7|—

"What the hell was that for?" Mamoru irately asked as he was thrown into what seemed to be a closet without much regard for his bodily safety.

"Calm down. We couldn't let the Dark Kingdom find you yet," Setsuna coolly replied as she yanked a spool of thread from her purse and shoved it into the startled man's face. "If they captured you without this, then how could we possibly follow you and rescue our princess?"

"You could've been a bit gentler about it," he retorted.

Setsuna ignored his complaint and started removing several similar spools of gray thread from her purse, handing two to each of the senshi. The thread on each spool was intertwined with itself to create thicker strands. That made her slightly nervous as the thicker filaments would have been easier to detect even with the dark coloration of the thread. She would have preferred using several single threads that alone may have been easier to break but also would have been far more difficult to perceive. Redundancy would have mitigated the issue of thread breakage and ensured that each senshi was physically connected to the prince. However, she knew they wouldn't have had enough time to attach a sufficient number of the extremely thin fibers to themselves and to Mamoru before he was found by the Dark Kingdom. Thus she decided to prepare thicker strands. Even so, she wasn't willing to trust entirely in her handiwork and opted to increase her probability of success by relying once again on redundancy.

"Attach one end of each strand to your body and the other end around Mamoru's ankle," Setsuna commanded.

"What? Why?" Makoto asked in confusion as she held the pair of spools outward in the open palm of her hand.

"I wish I had time to explain the plan to you, but for now you'll just have to trust me with this," Setsuna evenly replied. "Anyway, please hurry with that."

"Okay…" the brunette reluctantly uttered as she extended one end of the strand from one of the spools and wrapped it around her wrist, securing it with a knot.

A few minutes later a pair of thin strands fell from the waists and wrists of each woman and snaked their way along the ground to the ankles of a very wary Mamoru. He could readily see them against the dark brown wood floor and was of the mindset that anyone else who remotely paid attention would notice as well. Inevitably that worried him deeply about the successfulness of the plan and moreover about his own safety.

"Are you really, really sure that's going to work?" Mamoru asked as his narrowed eyes were locked on the pool of gray at his feet.

"What's changed? You were so sure about it not that long ago," Haruka said with a hint of a smirk on her lips as she addressed the apprehensive raven-haired man.

"It's going to work as long as you stop drawing attention to your feet," Michiru resolutely stated.

"She's right," Setsuna said calmly. "Even though the strands are thicker, they're still very thin and difficult to detect against the dark floor. It's only that they're bunched together right now that makes them easier to see."

"And… if we do this outside, with you standing in the grass of the courtyard, it would be harder still," Michiru noted, her eyes widening in recognition of the insight upon which she stumbled.

"Do what outside?" Makoto confusedly asked.

"You'll find out soon enough," Setsuna said before quickly turning to her turquoise-haired partner. "So, you think this will work better out there?"

"I think so. If anything, it will give us more places to hide," Michiru responded with a swift nod.

"Whichever way works for you guys, I'll play along, but I think we have to hurry" Haruka grumbled.

"Fine. Outside it is," Mamoru suddenly said, drawing the anxious stares of four pairs of eyes as he started walking out of the dimly lit closet and into the hall.

The women quickly followed him, carrying the bundles of thread in their arms to prevent them from tangling or accidentally snagging along a wall and breaking before they could arrive at the courtyard. However, it wasn't the same one they walked through while approaching the temple but a much larger field at the rear of the complex. Setsuna led the group to the rear of the building, mainly to avoid the ongoing conflict involving the remaining guardian senshi. She had a niggling suspicion that they would not be the ones most interested in ensnaring the young prince. Her decision proved to be wise as the expanse was far better suited for their intentions. It allowed Mamoru to be in the open and observable while giving the four senshi ample positions in which to hide, either in the temple or along the nearby treeline. Furthermore, the grass easily obscured the long strands of thread while not providing any rough edges that could break them. There wasn't a better location for executing their plan. The only problem was in being convincing enough to not expose their plot and put Mamoru at far greater risk of attack.

"Before you go out there, Mamoru, we all need to transform," Setsuna said with extraordinary tranquility considering the circumstances. She turned to the girls behind her and gave them a curt nod.

One by one, the women lifted their Lip Rods—or in the case of Makoto, her transformation pen—into the air and whispered their incantations. Brilliant flashes of colored light exploded around them, effectively blinding Mamoru. Only when their glows diminished could he see the four senshi decked in their similar short-skirted uniforms.

"_Now_ you can go," Haruka said somewhat mockingly but also with an obvious air of deadly seriousness in her tone.

—|1|2|3|4|5|**6**|7|—

Two sets of eyes, one violet and another royal blue, widened in horror when they passed to their owners the haunting vision of the leader of the Shitennou entering the shrine's living room. The two young girls were in no condition to battle pretty much anyone, let alone one of the fiercest opponents they could face aside from Beryl herself. For a fleeting instant, before that rational voice was quashed by Rei's incredible hatred of that particular pigtailed blonde and Minako's warped sense of the past, they appreciated the strength that Usagi had to possess to fight Kunzite to a draw. However, that was not the only being they had to combat as an absurdly beautiful but equally villainous woman stepped alongside the silver-haired general. They had no clue about who the woman was, what her capabilities were, or how she related to Kunzite or the Dark Kingdom. If they knew, they either would have fled or immediately submitted to their demands.

"Wh-who are you?" Rei hesitantly asked as she stepped in front of the girl she considered her leader in an attempt to shield the blonde.

"It doesn't matter," Sazaratha condescendingly said as she glared at the two girls. "Now, I want to make this quick because I have other things I need to do. Just hand over your princess's transformation brooch and we'll be out of here with no trouble."

The raven-haired girl, despite her insistent disdain of Usagi, immediately realized that was the person to whom Sazaratha referred when she said the word princess. "No," she fervently replied. "I'm not giving you the brooch."

"Ah well, I tried to make it easy on you guys, but you just had to refuse," Sazaratha said while expelling a disappointed sigh. She turned her eyes to an impassive Kunzite. "Well, do you want to start, or shall I?"

"We'll take them together," Kunzite evenly responded as he carefully studied his two foes. "However, we should at least make it somewhat sporting and give them an opportunity to transform."

"Now, why would you want to go and do that?" Sazaratha incredulously asked as her eyes narrowed in annoyance. The last thing she wanted was an opportunity for a protracted battle that gave the reviled senshi even a slight probability of victory.

"Don't worry, this won't take very long," Kunzite mockingly said as a small smirk appeared on his lips.

"You'll regret giving us this opportunity," Minako said as strongly as her frail voice would allow. She reached into her pocket and withdrew her transformation pen.

"This won't be as easy a fight as you think it'll be," Rei added as she did the same.

Kunzite arrogantly huffed. "No, we won't, and, yes, it will. Now, hurry up already."

Both girls lifted their pens above their heads and shouted their requisite magical incantations. Intensely bright light emanated from their bodies as their conversions into their warrior forms progressed. Moments later their colorful transformations were complete, and at the exact same time both girls crashed into the back wall of the living room. None knew exactly how such an occurrence came about, but as they slowly pushed themselves to their feet they had a hunch that it probably was the fault of the two smug individuals standing at the doorway.

"I did say that I would allow you to transform," Kunzite conceitedly stated with a wry smile as he stared at the two miserable girls. "I didn't say that I would wait for you to do anything after that." He then raised his hand and fired yet another dark-blue sphere of negative energy, this one aimed squarely at Minako.

"No!" Rei exclaimed as she ran in front of the stunned blonde just when the blast was scheduled to hit her. Expectedly the attack forcefully pushed the shrine maiden backward into her leader and knocked both girls to the floor once again.

"Now, before we go much further, I want to inform you that you can surrender at any time," Kunzite patronizingly stated.

"We will never surrender to someone as evil as you," Rei resolutely retorted as she climbed to her feet and clasped her hands in front of her body. A small red flame was ignited at the tips of her extended fingers.

"Oh… '_Fire Soul'_! I know that one! I hear it's supposed to be very strong, but I've never seen it actually _do_ anything before besides painfully annoy whatever it hits," Sazaratha said with playful excitement that transformed into blatant derision as she lifted her hand. A dim yellow ball of energy materialized just in front of her outstretched palm.

"_What the hell is that supposed to mean?"_ Rei indignantly asked herself as she followed through with her attack.

The red flame spiraled forth from Rei's fingers, growing into an ever-expanding fireball as it rapidly approached its target. Before any part of the inferno could touch the blond-haired woman the yellow sphere of energy in her hands emitted an intense flash of light. Soon the flames were colliding with a horribly perplexed red-skirted senshi who had no time to evade the attack. Her only advantage was her innate resistance to fire, one that was sorely tested by that maneuver. Once the conflagration around her dissipated, all that remained was a soot-covered girl in scorched clothing who tried her best to disguise her agonizing pain with a hateful glare.

"How'd you like that?" Sazaratha mockingly asked while glaring at the charred girl.

"About as much as you'll like _this_!" came an unanticipated shout from Minako as a golden chain composed of pure energy flew over Rei's shoulder and raced toward the two stunned opponents. Unfortunately for her, both Kunzite and Sazaratha managed to dodge the flailing whip before it had an opportunity to contact either of them.

"Heh. I feel so sorry for you if that thing was supposed to be your attack. That was absolutely _pathetic_," the smirking woman told her dismayed fellow blonde as she focused her narrowed eyes upon her. "In the spirit of sharing I'll show you something far more powerful."

Sazaratha lifted her hands above her head and created another golden sphere of dark energy. Its size, at more than twice the diameter of the initial volleyball-sized orb, indicated that it was a far more sinister attack. White sparks of electricity hauntingly danced around its exterior. Suddenly, three golden chains that looked identical to the singular chain she evaded moments ago dashed from the sphere and tightly enveloped a horrified Minako. The orange-clad senshi loudly shrieked and her body uncontrollably convulsed in excruciating pain as the waves of dark energy traveled down the chains and into her body. Although she only had to endure the attack for a few seconds, it was enough to drive Minako beyond the brink of unconsciousness. The chains vaporized and its victim collapsed to the floor with a sickening thud.

"See that? That's a small creation of mine I made a few days ago. The fruits of boredom, you see," Sazaratha haughtily remarked with a tremendous smile on her lips. "Anyway, those youmas you saw a short while ago proved a lot more useful than you may have thought. I only wish you guys were much stronger, as there's no telling what I could have done with better attacks."

Rei slowly backed away from the crazed blonde as far as she could, which wasn't very much given the relative constrictiveness of the room. Her only escape, short of the window, was the door blocked by her two vastly superior opponents. The window was not a good option either, as trying to lift an unconscious Minako on her shoulder while jumping through the narrow opening and evading vicious attacks held an exceedingly low probability of success. Maybe if she blasted a hole within the wall she could run away, but that would entail breaking through the thick walls and doing so quickly to avoid an attack on her exposed rear. That left her with two other options, neither of which she desired. The first was to continue fighting and inevitably die at their hands. The other was to surrender, much like Kunzite suggested, and hand them the brooch. She dithered for a few seconds, unsure of which path to travel. Unfortunately, she waited too long and was too absorbed in her thoughts to notice the blast of dark energy that was fired from Kunzite's hand. The pain was debilitating and she fell to the floor next to her leader. Unlike the blonde, she was still awake and she turned her head to stare at Kunzite, her eyes widened in terror.

"Now do you feel like stopping this little charade and surrendering the brooch?" the general disdainfully asked. "Because it's obvious you're not winning this fight."

—|1|2|3|4|5|6|**7**|—

Most of the time the blond-haired general floated over the shrine was spent in absolute boredom. There was nothing particularly interesting occurring within the grounds of the rather large compound. The only occurrence that piqued his curiosity and greatly amused him was the fight between three senshi. That incident left two of the senshi injured and the last furiously running from the temple. Beryl also found it fascinating but not one that necessitated Zoisite abandoning his task of passively monitoring the shrine and taking more direct action against the girls. She had other plans anyway. However, when he spotted the arrival of a distinct black-haired man accompanied by four women, one of whom he recognized from his battle the previous evening, he knew he had something that would draw far greater attention from his queen.

"_Your highness, I have just spotted the prince arriving at the shrine,"_ Zoisite eagerly said across his telepathic link to Beryl. Due to his altitude nobody on the ground would notice the dim green halo surrounding his body as he concentrated on sending his message.

"_That's quite excellent!"_ Beryl enthusiastically replied. She momentarily paused before delivering her next line. _"Is he alone or is there anyone else with him?"_

"_There are four women with him, one of whom is Sailor Jupiter. I can recognize that girl pretty much anywhere,"_ Zoisite said, this time much more calmly. _"I have no idea who the other three women are."_

"_Bring the prince to me, alive and unharmed,"_ the queen commanded. _"If Sailor Jupiter or any of the other women give you any trouble you are allowed to eliminate them,"_ she ominously added.

"_Very well, your highness,"_ Zoisite obediently responded as the mental link faded.

He stared at the front door of the temple as his target, that unusually tall senshi, and the three mysterious women walked inside. In his mind he began to formulate a plan for subduing and teleporting the prince into the Dark Kingdom. The main stumbling block was the knowledge that the prince also was Tuxedo Kamen. That form wasn't the most suited for combat—at least from the battles he had observed—but it could still give him trouble and inhibit him from following his queen's orders to the letter. Furthermore, he also needed to complete the task without interference from Sailor Jupiter, who he figured would not allow the prince to be taken without a fight. And, unlike the tuxedoed form of the prince, Jupiter was actually a highly capable fighter. On the other hand, he had already dealt with her and the other three senshi, so he knew how to combat her and negate her strengths. The one wild card was the other three women. Were they senshi that he had never seen before or just normal individuals unknowingly caught up in what was sure to become a very unfortunate situation? He could deal with the latter, but the former was a much more difficult circumstance.

He floated around the building almost absentmindedly as he was mired in contemplation about how to proceed with his orders. An eruption of bright yellow light at one side of the building shook him from his thoughts. It signaled the arrival of Kunzite and Sazaratha, who he deduced was on a mission to retrieve the transformation brooch for Beryl. He stared more closely at the blonde, a figure he had rarely seen in the halls of the Dark Kingdom and yet apparently had become equal in status to Kunzite and him. That move perplexed him to no end, not to mention greatly annoyed him. But her presence at the shrine certainly was more beneficial than hindering to his overall scheme, especially if she could distract the senshi and allow him to stealthily capture the prince.

A series of intense flashes of light and loud bangs and thuds from one room of the temple alerted him to the presence of a pitched battle. He smiled, knowing that the senshi would have had immense difficulty fighting two ranked generals, let alone one. That was especially true given the injuries he knew the leader of the senshi sustained from her subordinate and the friction between the senshi that appeared to grow with every minute. Even if the other women indeed were new senshi, he figured that would merely even the odds for his opponents. It absolutely would not give them any advantage. Nevertheless, it also told him that was his opportunity to strike, and he slowly descended upon the building with a feral smirk on his lips. Yet, for all his mental preparation ahead of his move, the scene that greeted him when he was only about fifty feet from the ground absolutely astounded him.

"Well, what do we have here?" Zoisite uttered to himself as he spotted from the corner of his eye the raven-haired prince standing alone in the pouring rain and completely exposed in the wide expanse of the rear courtyard.

He stopped his controlled fall and hovered over the man. It just looked too… perfect. How could it not be a devious ambush? He scanned the edges of the tree line and the rear door of the building and found nothing. Even so he was more wary than he was at the beginning of his attack as it was extraordinarily rare for the prince to make such a tactical blunder. His only explanation was that the man he targeted was unaware of his position in the entirety of the Dark Kingdom's scheme. Maybe he didn't know that they wanted to capture him as much as they wanted to kill the princess and obtain the Silver Crystal. His presence in that field… he could have been looking for an escape from the battle for his three acquaintances, or he may have been searching for a hidden location to transform into his Tuxedo Kamen alter-ego. In either case, so long as he was out there and alone, absconding with the prince would have been an absurdly simple task. Zoisite accelerated his descent and touched down on the ground immediately in front of the man a few seconds later.

"Hello, my dear Prince Endymion," Zoisite sardonically addressed the apparently stunned man. "You look so surprised to see me."

"Zoisite!" Mamoru exclaimed while reflexively taking a step backward. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to collect a certain individual, if you don't mind," the blond general said as a wry smile once again tugged at his lips.

"I'm not going to let you hurt any of them," Mamoru said with a forceful tone while pointing behind him to the temple.

"If you haven't noticed, there is a large battle going on in that very same temple," Zoisite said sarcastically while folding his arms in front of his chest. "That's probably more of a concern to them than anything I would do."

"I'm sure the senshi are handling it quite well," Mamoru said as evenly as possible.

"Then why are you out here all alone?" Zoisite countered. "Wouldn't you want to go and help them? After all, you _are_ Tuxedo Kamen."

"I was…" He abruptly paused for only a brief moment, which only slightly attracted the general's suspicion. "I was looking for an avenue of escape for my friends away from the battle," he resolutely said. Any hints of uncertainty in his voice had to come from his nervousness from being perilously close to the enemy, Zoisite assumed.

"The bad news is you'll find no escape this way," Zoisite ominously replied in a lowered tone, his previous smirk nonexistent. His dark-green eyes involuntarily narrowed as he intensified his stare and slowly, almost threateningly, approached the tall prince, stopping when he was within arm's reach of the man. Then, as startlingly as before, his demeanor rapidly shifted and the customary smirk reappeared. "The good news is I'm not after your friends," he said with a combination of disdain and derision. "Instead I'm after you."

Mamoru took what seemed to be another frightened step backward and raised his hands in front of his body a defensive posture. "What do you want with me?" he fearfully asked.

"Apparently our queen wants to see you," Zoisite dryly responded. "If you come with me willingly I can assure you that you will suffer no harm."

"Is that all?" Mamoru asked, eliciting an eyebrow raised in skepticism from the blonde until he continued to speak. "What about my friends? You're not going to turn around and attack them if I decide to go with you, are you?"

The eyebrow lowered itself to its normal position as Zoisite chuckled in sheer amusement. "You have my personality down to a science, Endymion," he said while he continued to laugh. "I can understand your wariness. However, as they have nothing to do with our conflict, if you submit to me I will have no reason to attack them."

Mamoru slowly lowered his hands as he leveled a distrustful stare at the general. "If that's the case, then I will see your queen," he determinedly stated.

"A very wise move," Zoisite patronizingly said as he closed the distance between Mamoru and him.

He tightly grasped both of the man's forearms and was genuinely surprised when he sensed no resistance from his target. All that came from the prince was an apprehensive stare directly into his eyes. Truly it was far too easy for him to complete his task, starkly contrasting the ongoing battle within the shrine that Kunzite and Sazaratha endured as evidenced by the loud crashes that emanated from the shrine. He took a deep breath before both he and the prince began to emit a dim golden light. The fact that Mamoru was taller than him by a few inches, combined with the fact his eyes were locked onto the piercing dark-blue counterparts, prevented him from noticing the narrow, glowing streams that snaked through the grass and into the temple. It also distracted him from the gold auras below the windows. Otherwise he would not have been quite as eager to complete the teleportation process.

"All you have to do is relax and it won't hurt a bit," Zoisite said as the radiance intensified.

Not even a second later he disappeared from the courtyard, leaving behind a wisp of black smoke. Mamoru also had vanished from view with nothing but a similar black cloud in his place. Zoisite had captured his queen's prince. However, he wouldn't know until later that evening that he had brought along with him four uninvited guests.


	35. Existence No More

**Chapter 35: Existence No More**

Tears flowed unabated from Usagi's vacant eyes as she kneeled on the cold stone floor of Queen Beryl's throne room. They were tears that represented the abject misery she felt seeing her parents and younger brother die before her very eyes without any power to save them. Those were scenes that absolutely sickened her. The only vision that compared in her mind was the carnage that befell her prior kingdom, a slaughter that resulted in the deaths of everyone she ever knew and loved. Even though that was an ancient event in the course of history, its memory was fresh within her mind and it tore at her at that very second. Needless deaths of innocents, every last one of them.

However, mixed in with those depressed tears were tears of sweet relief borne from the knowledge that there was a way to make all the suffering of the past and present disappear. The longer she reflected on those two eras the more she was convinced Beryl's words were true. The one constant in all of the tragedies was her very existence. It started at the very beginning: her existence during the Silver Millennium destroyed the engagement and eventual marriage of Beryl to Endymion, thus prompting the conflict that continued into modern times. In the present it was her pathetic existence as a clumsy, ignorant, useless senshi that truly never should have been that ultimately broke apart her relationship with the other senshi and resulted in Ami's death. It was her reincarnation as the daughter of Ikuko and Kenji Tsukino and as the brother of Shingo that lead to the deaths of those lovely innocents. She resolved her mind and her heart to make one last, eternal promise to correct the past and the present and to never bestow such suffering upon others ever again. This was to be her most vital mission ever in life as a senshi, as a princess, and as a normal girl who never wished any of those roles for herself in the first place.

After several minutes of crying she pushed herself to her feet, wiping the heavy droplets from her cheeks with the back of her hand. There would be no more crying. Not anymore. She needed to be strong. Every fiber of her being needed to be tenacious to carry out that singular momentous task or else she would fail everyone once again. After all, it was her propensity for failure, among other disastrous traits, that brought immense anguish upon her loved ones in the current time, something that absolutely was untenable.

She walked to a corner of the spacious but dimly lit room and slowly studied every minute detail of the circular chamber she could perceive. Naturally, the most opulent object was the queen's throne, an obsidian structure trimmed with deep red and pale blue crystals that appeared to glow. It was an awesome effect of the cut stones refracting and reflecting the torchlight, causing some of them to shimmer when viewed at the proper angle. That powerful throne was perched upon a raised platform that irrefutably communicated her dominance over her subjects and her minions. Nothing else within that room was quite as unique or, honestly, as beautiful as that preeminent seat. She had approached the chair to more deeply examine it when the initially mutated taps of heels against stone she could sense behind her progressively grew louder. It and the bright red light from the amulet hanging from her neck drew her attention and prompted her to turn to the red-haired woman attentively standing nearby.

"Do you like what you see?" Beryl asked. Her voice contained no malice or disdain for the blonde she cordially addressed but instead genuine curiosity. That was not to suggest her feelings for the girl had changed.

"It's… interesting," she slowly replied, stating the first word that came to her mind.

The woman took a small step closer to the considerably younger girl. "Are you having second thoughts about your promise?"

Usagi determinedly shook her head but continued to stare at the throne. "I was just thinking that all of this was constructed because of me," she soberly whispered, her pitch slightly lower than usual.

For her part, Beryl allowed herself to experience a modicum of pity for the girl she willingly steered toward that self-destructive mindset. She was careful to not to let her mind or heart delve too deeply into that potent emotion. Her loathsome enemy was all but determined to perform for her a major favor and, if the erratic side effects of using the crystal were avoided, her sacrifice would have reignited her relationship with the prince she still desired. She was not about to discard all of that because the brief moment of pure agony the girl would endure as soon as Kunzite could retrieve the Silver Crystal caused her to feel undue sympathy for the princess.

"It truly is the right thing to do," Beryl said evenly.

"I know," Usagi replied with equivalent calm in her voice. She finally turned to face the woman, staring at her with dim but otherwise lively eyes. "There is nothing more that I want to do right now than correct my mistakes and resolve this conflict—no, prevent its very start," she said with unmistakable steadfastness despite her soft tone. "However, I also want to see my senshi one last time before I do this, if only to apologize for the pain I forced upon them."

Initially, and quite reasonably, Beryl considered her request with suspicion. Why would she ever allow the senshi into her kingdom when the princess was armed with the only object that could defeat both her and Metalia? However, as she stared into the steely blue eyes of the girl standing before her she could perceive extraordinary sincerity. She was not constructing a trap but planning her farewell. With that knowledge in hand she figured she could be lenient enough to allow the princess that last wish.

"Very well, Princess," Beryl graciously replied. "I will instruct Kunzite to retrieve both the crystal in your brooch and the remaining senshi." She paused momentarily as she carefully considered her next words. "Furthermore, I will order him to spare them injury to the best of his ability, although given their understandable distrust of me, and of you, I don't know how well he will be able to carry out that command."

"That's fine," Usagi said gently. "As long as I can see them one last time, it's okay." A warm smile, one that while small was full of hope and honesty, slowly found its way to her lips. "After all, none of this will matter anymore. This fighting, this hatred… none of it will exist," she confidently added.

Beryl nodded and returned a similar grin. In her usual manner it was mostly false and deceitful, but in the fringes were the tiniest hints of the first genuinely warm smile she had given or even had the pleasure of experiencing in ages. She walked up the steps of the platform and sat upon the throne from which she had directed the mission to eliminate the princess and her senshi, revive Metalia, and reclaim her rightful authority to rule over the planet as queen—with Endymion as king. She profoundly believed her difficult struggle would conclude in her victory that day. No, it would be something greater than mere victory. She would be queen of Earth in the absence of Metalia and the myriad of severe issues that accompanied its enviable power. She would reign over the planet secure with the knowledge that it and the remainder of the solar system would be well-protected by the senshi. No victory would have been obtained, because no battle ever would have been fought. To ensure that precious outcome, she decided to send her new orders to Kunzite with great haste. Everything else, including a seemingly urgent message from one of her generals, would have to wait.

—|1|**2**|3|4|5|6|7|—

Kunzite stood at the doorway of the jumbled mess that formerly was the living room for Rei and the primary meeting location for the senshi while wearing a humongous smirk. He had Sailors Venus and Mars at their most vulnerable and likely was a few well-placed strikes away from sending the two detested girls to oblivion. It was a fervent desire of his, especially since the beating he endured at the hands of the princess the previous evening. Capturing the princess _and_ killing the senshi in one day would have been an extremely worthwhile accomplishment. Unfortunately it was a triumph that had to be delayed on the orders of his queen.

"_Kunzite,"_ he heard the woman abruptly yelled within his mind, causing him to wince in pain. Through the agony he managed to peek at Sazaratha and spotted the blonde displaying an identical reaction. _"Have you obtained the transformation brooch yet?"_

"_No,"_ Kunzite disappointedly replied. _"We have encountered some resistance from two of the senshi who are guarding the brooch."_ His tone became more hopeful. _"However, the good news is we are very close to eliminating the two and returning with the item."_

"_Well, whatever you do, don't kill the senshi,"_ Beryl bluntly commanded. _"I want you to bring them to me alive."_

"_As you wish, your highness,"_ Kunzite resignedly began, _"but I don't know if that would be possible given the injuries they've sustained. Furthermore, they haven't revealed to us the exact location of the item, and I doubt they would do so without prompting."_

"_In that case you'll have to invent some way to convince them to surrender the brooch without further harming them,"_ Beryl said in a voice that was both respectfully authoritative and ominous. _"It is just as imperative that they live as it is that you return with the brooch and the crystal."_

"_I will try my best,"_ Kunzite nervously replied.

"_No, you will succeed,"_ Beryl curtly advised before swiftly discontinuing the telepathic link.

Kunzite glanced at Sazaratha and exchanged a fleeting look of apprehension and displeasure before returning his gaze to the two battered foes lying prostrate on the floor before him. One of them was slowly pushing herself back to her feet, staring at him with widened violet eyes, while the other remained on the cold hardwood surface and appeared to be completely unconscious. Clearly, neither girl was in a proper condition to continue the battle. He hoped that they would capitulate and hand over the brooch, if only so he could comply with the ridiculous order his queen sent him.

"Now do you feel like stopping this little charade and surrendering the brooch?" Kunzite disdainfully asked the raven-haired senshi. "Because it's obvious you're not winning this fight."

Rei managed to climb to her feet, a momentous struggle given her excruciating pain and dwindling energy and stamina. Despite her hardships, she was not about to yield to an abominable foe. She was a Sailor Senshi, after all.

"Who said I was losing?" she shakily asked while attempting her best imitation of a wry smile.

"Come on! Look around you!" Sazaratha scathingly interjected. "Your so-called leader is knocked out, and one more hit will all but kill her. _You're_ not looking all too great, either."

"All you have to do is give us the brooch and we will ensure you two will survive," Kunzite added in a solemn tone.

The shrine maiden's eyes widened further upon the reminder of the sorry condition of the one person she still considered a friend and ally. She turned a quick glance over her shoulder at the comatose blonde. It was blatantly obvious that the words of her mysterious female enemy rang true. One more direct hit, or maybe even a glancing blow, would result in Minako sharing a fate similar to Ami's. Yes, she was a senshi, but the loss of the young genius and beloved comrade was a large enough shock for her when the three girls were able to comfort one another. Seeing her dear friend and leader die before her eyes, especially with the knowledge she could have prevented it, would have utterly destroyed her psyche, and she would have had nobody to console her. Usagi's brooch and the crystal thought to reside within were important, and she believed it was vital that the Dark Kingdom did not possess either, but was that truly the most important thing to her? She began to feel great uncertainty about the answer to that question.

"I… I…" Rei nervously stuttered before stopping whatever it was she was about to say. Her attention was drawn to the glowing hands of the sinister woman in front of her.

"Now, this is your last warning," Sazaratha threatened. "I strongly doubt she will survive this new attack, so think very hard about what you want to do."

Rei looked over her shoulder one last time before settling upon her decision. It was far from her preferred option but the terrible circumstances forced her hand. She framed it within her mind as a tactical maneuver, the only one that made any sense. So, with a heavy, resigned sigh she reached into her pocket and removed the flawless gold brooch.

"Here it is," she whispered as she tossed the round object into the waiting hands of Kunzite.

"Thank you," he said evenly as he slipped the item into the inner pocket of his jacket. He turned to Sazaratha and slightly nodded his head, a signal that prompted the woman to suddenly rush toward Rei and envelop the stunned girl in a tight but far from loving hug.

"Hey!" Rei loudly protested as she struggled to free herself from the restrictive and painful grasp that pinned her arms at her side.

"The brooch was only one of the things we're after," Kunzite said while glaring at the irate girl, whose face was progressively turning a dark shade of red to match her eyes.

"You said you weren't going to hurt us!" Rei furiously shouted while continuing to twist her body and kick at the woman holding her from behind but to no avail.

"I'm _not_ going to hurt you, and if you'd quit struggling she won't find a reason to hurt you either," Kunzite forcefully replied while pointing toward Sazaratha.

The silver-haired general then slowly walked past Rei's violent stare and crouched next to Minako's motionless body. Despite her unconscious state she was still transformed into Sailor Venus, although Kunzite could plainly tell that she was not going to be a threat to him for quite a long while. The minute rise and fall of her chest indicated that she was breathing, albeit shallowly. Nevertheless, that was sufficient for his purposes as he placed his gloved hand ominously close to her forehead.

"Don't you _dare_ touch her!" Rei yelled with ferocious anger at Kunzite, who merely shrugged off her demand and slowly lowered his hand until it gently touched the girl's head, only slightly shuffling her disheveled blond hair.

"Now, you might feel slightly nauseous for a very brief moment, but otherwise the trip should be smooth and relatively painless," Kunzite matter-of-factly said as both he and Minako started to emit a bright gold light that filled the room.

"It'll be even easier on you if you'd just _relax_!" Sazaratha harshly said to Rei as the girl maintained her futile resistance. The pair soon released a similarly intense glow. A moment later, neither the senshi nor their captors were within the shattered remnants of the once lively room.

—|1|2|**3**|4|5|6|7|—

Only a few seconds had elapsed since Beryl sent her order to Kunzite to capture the remaining senshi before a bright flash of light erupted in the center of the throne room. There, before a very stunned red-haired woman and equally astounded pigtailed blonde materialized Zoisite and his quarry, the vaunted Prince of the Earth. Beryl rose from her seat and smiled brightly at both of the men while Usagi opted to remain more tranquil in her expressions.

"You're highness, I have brought to you the prince, as you requested," Zoisite said while genuflecting deeply. "It took a bit more energy than I predicted it would, and I have the sense that there's something wrong."

"You have done well, Zoisite," Beryl excitedly replied. She gestured to the man, telling him to stand erect. "If you wish to investigate the issue, you're free to do so. Now, please leave us alone with the prince."

"Us?" Zoisite uttered in confusion. He didn't know how he failed to notice the young blonde standing near the queen until the very moment the queen mentioned her. "What is _she_ doing here?" he asked in perplexed anger that primarily was directed at the person he had a great desire to kill.

"Don't worry about her," Beryl curtly replied. "She's here at my own request, and she's not a threat."

Mamoru turned his disbelieving eyes to the girl that stood in such treacherous proximity to the deadly queen. His first instinct was to run to her and snatch her away to safety. What 'safety' was in a place like that he couldn't immediately determine, but his mind was certain that its definition did not include standing next to one's hated enemy. However, he was suffering enough by merely standing twenty feet away from Beryl. He inferred that closing the distance would only increase the excruciating pain he felt. His mind briefly pondered how Usagi could remain so calm standing next to the queen and not share his palpable distress before quickly dropping the subject. There were far more important things to consider, such what he would possibly say to the queen that could win her release, and possibly his as well.

"Mamoru," Usagi whispered with only the slightest intimation of joy in her tone, shaking him from his thoughts.

He blinked in surprise, alternating between his dismay of Usagi using his civilian name and not knowing how to respond to the girl he once deeply loved.

"It's okay," the blonde morosely said. "She knows who we are, so we don't need to hide our identities anymore."

Mamoru's shoulders slumped and a depressed sigh slipped from his mouth. "Usagi… are you alright?" he cautiously asked. The girl slowly nodded her head in response, prompting him to ask his next question. "Did they harm you in any way?"

Usagi closed her eyes and reflected on the torture she endured prior to speaking with Beryl. That experience was something she never wanted to have happen to her or anyone, no matter how passionately she loathed them. However, her conversation with the queen rang loudly in her mind, and she realized that whatever pain she felt must have paled in comparison to the agony she inflicted upon others.

"It was nothing that I didn't truly deserve," she dejectedly answered as a lone tear threatened to slip from her eyes. She wiped it away with the back of her hand and smiled widely at Mamoru. It seemed an odd smile to his eyes, one that was not quite cheerful but neither was it forced. It was a sincere smile that relayed the tremendous relief that she felt.

"Usagi…" he began to complain but was cut short.

"Don't worry. All of this will be over as soon as I get the Silver Crystal," she said with muted enthusiasm.

"What do you mean?" the thoroughly confused prince asked.

"This fighting against one another… we won't have to do it anymore," she said evenly as she unhurriedly stepped down from the raised platform and approached Mamoru. "You, the other senshi, Beryl and her generals… everyone will live in peace."

"What about you?" Mamoru anxiously questioned.

"I will get the opportunity to correct the mistakes I made all this time and the suffering and heartache I caused everyone to feel," Usagi replied in a tone that carried an eerily familiar strange sense of calm.

A large lump formed in Mamoru's throat as he had an inherent sense of what she was planning to do. "Please don't tell me you're going to do something to hurt yourself with the thought that it'll help everyone," he pleaded, staring into the hauntingly vacant eyes of that miserable young girl.

"I have to do it," Usagi said more emphatically. "I have to make everything better for everyone."

"But not like this," Mamoru whispered. He tried to put his arm around Usagi and bring her closer to him, but she roughly pushed him away.

"It's the only way, so please don't try to stop me," Usagi harshly countered.

He dropped his eyes to his feet, disappointed at the self-destructive mindset that Usagi somehow had developed since her capture. _"Usagi… what caused you to think that such a foolish sacrifice would benefit anyone besides the people who most want you dead?"_ he sadly pondered.

"Yes, I strongly suggest that you let her carry out her wishes," Beryl smugly said.

"Don't tell me you made her like this?" Mamoru angrily asked as he turned a vicious glare to the regal yet fiendish woman.

"I did nothing of the sort," Beryl innocently replied as she stepped down from her throne. "I merely reminded her of what the truth was. She was the one who decided her own fate and her own way to resolve the problems of that truth."

Mamoru could feel the fury mounting within his soul as he knew the queen had manipulated Usagi's emotions. He didn't know the extent to which that evil woman had influenced the girl or the situation that made the otherwise tenacious young princess vulnerable. It frustrated him that in the scant time between her capture and his arrival she had changed so drastically. He had hoped that she would have been able to resist whatever machinations Beryl had planned for her, but all hope was quashed by that depressing sight.

"If I find that you've done anything to—"

"Stop, Mamoru!" Usagi exasperatedly shouted, interrupting his threat and drawing his gaze once again. "Stop doing this! Everything she said was right. So, don't prevent me from doing what I need to do, _okay_?"

"Usagi…"

"No!" Usagi resolutely shouted, startling the man with her sudden outburst of anger. She shoved Mamoru away from her and stomped back toward the throne and toward Beryl while wearing a fierce scowl. He extended his arm to grasp for her, to attempt one last futile plea, but she had slipped beyond his reach. By then he knew it was too late to save her, for her stubbornness had dominated her emotions and the prince could do nothing to dissuade the young princess from completing her sacrificial task.

"Endymion, don't you see that it's useless to try talking her out of doing the right thing?" Beryl asked in a voice that contained a trace of derision. "It truly is the one thing that will bring closure to our struggle and to yours as well."

"You lie!" Mamoru bellowed. "Having Usagi kill herself would only suit your self-serving mission of revenge and of destroying this very planet!"

Beryl hung her head and shook it in disillusionment. "The destruction of this planet is the absolute last thing I want," she replied in a whisper that progressively grew louder and angrier as she spoke. "This planet is my home. It is my _only_ home. It is also my kingdom, and I am _NOT_ going to obliterate my own kingdom for any reason! Such a thought is unfathomable!" She paused for a brief moment to collect herself and her emotions. "It is true that I desired revenge against her," she said forcefully while looking toward the princess, "but it is not for the reason you suspect."

"Why could you possibly want revenge for anything other than her ancient mother sealing you away before you could completely destroy any remaining trace of the Silver Millennium?" Mamoru skeptically asked.

The red-haired queen sighed heavily to release her immense frustration. "You truly don't get it, do you?" she asked. "The revenge I seek in the present is nothing more than a continuation of that which I almost completed in the past."

"You mean…" he hesitantly started to ask, though for some reason never found the will to complete.

"Yes, I mean when she stole your heart from me and destroyed our future together!" she furiously interjected. "We were supposed to be husband and wife, not to mention king and queen! I loved you with all my soul, and you loved me the same. But somehow she demolished that cherished bond we have and took you from me, leaving me a miserable wreck and allowing the seeds of hatred to grow within me."

Mamoru glanced at Usagi and noticed the grim look of guilt she held on her face. He slowly deduced what had occurred to the tiny blonde that sapped her of her strength and self-confidence. Somehow, that evil woman got to her, convinced her that everything was her fault, and informed her the only way she could atone for it all was to kill herself. However, that theory remained woefully incomplete and he needed much more information to answer the questions burning within his mind. The most important of them all: what broke Usagi? She had grown to be amazingly mature and capable not just as a warrior but as a young woman. He briefly considered the recent events involving him dumping her and her friends completely abandoning her. However, that horrible circumstance was the impetus for her growth. Maybe it was her failure to restore her friendships with the other senshi and their rejection of her, punctuated by their forceful seizure of her brooch. If so, it was the worst mistake they ever could have made. It also possibly was their last ever mistake. More likely was Ami's sudden, tragic death that she failed to prevent despite her best efforts. Nevertheless, it was indefensible for that fiendish woman to manipulate the young girl's emotions, especially given the tremendous consequences of doing so.

"You know damn well that it was not her fault that happened," Mamoru said with an intensity of rage he never knew he possessed. His body trembled while his face and narrowed eyes were swathed by an ominously dark shade of red.

"Don't you remember the profundity of our love?" Beryl irately retorted with a low, measured tone. "Almost nothing in the solar system could separate us, certainly no other man for me and no other woman for you. That was, until _she_ found you." She sighed once again, a breath that was even heavier than the last, hoping to control her fury before it derailed everything she accomplished that evening. "However, that soon will not matter anymore, for she will rectify the damage she did in the past."

"She will do nothing of the sort as long as I am here," he said as he dashed up the steps and lunged at the queen.

Beryl did not flinch when she spotted the raging man leap up the steps to her elevated throne. She didn't have to. The negative energy she naturally emitted was beyond sufficient to subdue him once he was within mere feet of her. He fell to his knees and began to writhe in agony. She reflexively stepped away from the man to alleviate his suffering, as despite her fury and disappointment she still wanted him, and a part of her soul still loved him. But the last thing she was going to do was allow him the pleasure of breaking her heart and ruining her destiny once again.

—|1|2|3|**4**|5|6|7|—

The four women stared at each other in bemusement immediately after noticing the murky and dank conditions surrounding them. Visibility was severely hampered by a thick fog that settled close to the floor of the uncomfortably warm and humid chamber. Because of that they could only see objects within a few feet of them. Fortunately the quartet had firmly grasped each other's hands while they hid within the temple and thus were teleported to that mysterious room as a single unit. None of them desired to know what would have befallen them if they were separated, as all of them soon realized they were lost deep within the bowels of the Dark Kingdom.

"Okay, so… what do we do now?" Michiru hesitantly whispered. She took great pains to ensure she did not give away their presence, as far as she knew.

"I guess we somehow have to find where they're holding our princess," Setsuna anxiously replied.

"But where the hell are we right now?" Haruka asked with a combination of apprehension and genuine curiosity. In her enthusiasm her voice was slightly louder than a whisper.

"Be careful, Uranus," Setsuna scolded in a terse whisper. "We don't know who might be nearby who could hear us."

"I'm not worried about them finding us. They should be worried about us finding them," she responded with her typical bluster, although she did humor the woman by lowering the volume of her voice. "Anyway, I believe our primary task is to find our princess and rescue her as quickly as possible."

"But I can't even see more than a few feet in front of me. How are we going to fix that?" Makoto nervously asked.

"I was thinking of stealthily walking through this chamber in one direction until we find a wall, and then following the wall to some sort of exit," Setsuna calmly replied.

"We don't have time for that," Haruka said irately. "Who knows what's happening to the princess while we wait."

"I'm with Uranus. We shouldn't be too cautious here," Michiru eagerly added.

"Fine, fine…" Setsuna resignedly uttered. She lifted the Garnet Rod above her head as the orb lodged within dimly glowed with a faint red color. "I hope this works to remove some of the fog."

She closed her eyes and slipped into deep concentration. While she did so the light radiating from the Garnet Orb slowly grew brighter and the fog within their immediate vicinity began to dissipate. Foot by foot the air began to clear and the four women could more easily discern their surroundings. If they knew where they were, they probably would have opted to keep the fog.

"What is this?" Makoto tensely asked as she surveyed the dull gray stone that composed the walls and floor of the circular room.

The drabness of that round chamber was punctuated by dozens of light blue cylinders that lined the wall, each one discharging a light silver mist from its base. Dark shadows could be seen through the translucent blue exteriors, each one revealing a different shape. Some of the hazy shadows appeared human-like, while others clearly were unfamiliar figures that evoked images of beings seen in more esoteric horror movies. Nonetheless, each of the senshi inherently knew what those tubes contained, even though only one of them had the experience of seeing the contents first hand.

"Youmas," Setsuna matter-of-factly replied. "It seems we're in a youma containment room."

"Maybe an incubation chamber for developing youmas," Michiru suggested.

"We could take them out now while they're stuck in those tubes," Haruka smugly said as she slowly pivoted around on her heels. "It shouldn't be too difficult."

"Maybe, but I think we should try to get to the exit and out of here without being detected," Setsuna offered while pointing the tip of the Garnet Rod at the large steel door gracing the far end of the room.

"That sounds like a good idea to me," Makoto tentatively replied while looking toward her blond- and turquoise-haired partners with prodding eyes. The other two senshi nodded, although it was obvious Haruka still preferred a more aggressive strategy.

The quartet carefully made their way to the massive door, all the while trying their best to minimize the resounding clacks that occurred each time their heels struck the floor. That, ultimately, was the easy part of their journey. Opening the steel barrier and freeing themselves from the room proved far more difficult.

"Is there some way to actually open the door?" Michiru asked. A cursory glance around the rust-colored structure found no switch or lever that one could use to remove the obstacle from their path.

"Could we blast the door open with our attacks?" Haruka outwardly pondered with a slight shrug of her shoulders.

Setsuna lightly rapped the door with the base of her Garnet Rod before sullenly shaking her head. "I doubt it. Who knows how thick this steel is," she replied.

"Well, we have to try something," Michiru said while turning her eyes back to her lover. "If the steel is thin in some spots, maybe we could punch through it."

"But what do we do if that doesn't work?" Makoto asked with a worried tone. "We'll probably be stuck here forever, or at least until they open the doors for the youmas."

Despite the brunette saying the tail end of her last sentence with a lowered pitch and softer volume, the words piqued Setsuna's imagination. "Wait, you may have stumbled upon a way out of here," the enigmatic senshi of time said to Makoto with optimism.

"Really?" Makoto perplexedly asked.

The other two senshi, who at the time were examining the door for weak spots, looked over their shoulders at their younger compatriot. "Now that I think about it, if what I suggested was correct, then that may be the perfect way to escape from here," Michiru said while delivering a wry grin.

"And I finally get to blow off a little steam," Haruka said while delivering a similar smirk.

"If they're actively monitoring what's happening with their youmas, then creating a situation for them to come here and figure out what's going on may not be such a bad thing after all," Setsuna said with the faintest of smiles on her otherwise tranquil face.

The four senshi walked a few paces away from the door and examined the cylinders once again, looking for the few that contained the most powerful-looking youmas. None of them knew the particular capabilities the youmas possessed or even the stages of their development, so whichever ones they chose effectively were at random. Either way, they were intent on ensuring some of the figures within those cylinders never would live long enough to bother them in the future.

Naturally, Haruka was the first of the quartet to begin her attack. She raised her hand above her head, forming a golden sphere enclosed by a gold ring at the tips of her fingers that grew larger and glowed more intensely as she closed her hand into a fist. With a shout of "World Shaking," she then swiftly brought her hand down, hurling the massive globe through the earth and straight into one of the containment vessels. The pale blue glass shattered and the creature incubating within immediately vaporized in an explosion of yellow light, leaving behind a pile of sandy dust as the only proof of its existence. The strike was so powerful that the glass within the cylinders directly abutting the target also shattered, leaving those youmas to suffer a much slower demise as their carefully controlled atmospheres were permanently disrupted.

"Not bad," Haruka said with a pleased smirk on her lips as she enjoyed performing her first ever attack as a senshi.

"I guess I should go next," Michiru quickly followed, a similar smile tugging at the edges of her mouth. She lifted both arms over her head and formed a ringed sphere similar to that her lover had created except in cyan. Once that orb reached its maximal size she brought her arms down to her side she yelled "Deep Submerge" and fired the luminescent ball at the incubating youmas directly across from the one Haruka destroyed. Likewise, the specially designed chamber exploded, irreparably damaging nearby vessels and instantly disintegrating the targeted youma.

"Now I can see how you can enjoy doing this," Michiru teasingly said to Haruka as she gave the sandy blonde a mischievous smile.

"I think we should hide next to the doors, so that whenever someone comes by to investigate the damage, we'll be able to ambush them and sneak out," Setsuna said evenly but with a faster cadence to emphasize the sense of urgency.

The other three senshi nodded before sprinting to positions on either side of the large door. Not even a minute later the room shuddered and a loud groan echoed through the chamber as the door slowly lifted open. A human-like creature with light red and purple skin ran through the threshold and dashed a few feet past the waiting women. Its face was contorted into an expression of outright horror as it spotted the incident that created the alarm to which it responded. At no time, until it was woefully too late, did it realize there were interlopers within her domain.

"Dead Scream," Setsuna whispered as a light purple sphere of energy shot from the orb contained within her Garnet Rod. The blast vaporized the youma before it could turn its head and detect the source of the strange voice.

"I guess we can go now," Michiru said as she was already on the other side of the entryway and had physically dragged Haruka alongside her by her arm. The other two senshi nodded and jogged out of the room.

They emerged into a long, darkened hallway that was cooler and drier than the room from which they escaped. It was a welcomed change in atmosphere as they sprinted to whatever awaited them at the end of the corridor. What they found, after breezing past the multi-hall junction they correctly assumed connected that incubation chamber several similar rooms, was a fork. The larger hall was unobstructed whereas the smaller was blocked by a simple door, one they could easily open on their own.

"Which way do we go?" Makoto asked. She turned her eyes to Setsuna and gave her a quizzical look. In the short amount of time she had known the enigmatic green-haired woman she had come to expect answers to practically any question from her elder.

"I don't know," Setsuna started, and Makoto could feel her spirits deflate ever so slightly. "However, I have a feeling that we should take the door," she said more animatedly.

"Well, in that case, let's go!" Haruka exclaimed as she pulled open the simple metal door.

The four senshi burst into what they realized was a control room for all of the youma incubation chambers. It was a place that combined technology and magic in the way the computers precisely controlled the flow of dark energy to each of the containment vessels. A crescent-shaped table stood in the center of the room from which an attendant could monitor several large information screens. None of the senshi could understand the text that scrolled across the display, but from the images they could infer that there were hundreds of youmas that were at various stages of development in that small section alone. Clearly, Beryl was creating an army of youmas with the assistance of Metalia's energy.

"This does not look good," Setsuna nervously uttered.

"No, it doesn't," Michiru concurred, with Haruka nodding for effect.

"Can we do anything about it?" Makoto asked while peering about the dimly lit room.

"Maybe if we destroy the control center we can stop them," Haruka suggested.

"That sounds like a good idea, but how about sabotage instead of outright destruction," Setsuna said with a mischievous glint in her eye.

"But whatever we do we have to do it quickly. Our princess is waiting for us," Michiru warned.

"I still say just destroy this place and they won't be able to control their little youma nursery," Haruka said with derision targeted at the whole machine they wished to disrupt.

"Besides, how can we sabotage this place when we don't know what anything here does," Makoto added.

"Ah well, you have a good point," Setsuna resignedly acknowledged, still wishing to do something more subversive. Her disappointment rapidly disappeared when she lifted her Garnet Rod and pointed it at the console while displaying a tremendous smile on her face. "Let's hurry up with this, shall we?"

"Absolutely!" Haruka exclaimed with an even greater smirk pulling on her lips.

A few seconds later, no part of the control room was recognizable from what they had seen when they entered. The large screens attached to the wall were shattered and broken, with some of them detached from their fasteners, while the center console was a melted, smoking mass. It was complete and absolute destruction, and it made the four women ecstatic. At least, up to the moment when the floor beneath their feet started to rumble.

"I think we should get out of here," Michiru anxiously stated. She found no argument from any of the other senshi.

"Through here!" Setsuna shouted as she opened a door across the room from where they entered. She allowed the other three women to dash through the opening before she followed them into yet another dark hallway.

The four senshi ran as quickly as they could, although it was extremely difficult for them to maintain their footing as the ground continuously shook and threatened to topple them. If the quaking unnerved the intruders, it absolutely had to have alerted the other youmas that must have guarded certain sections of the cavernous lair. Indeed, before they could reach the end of the hall a bright-red beam of negative energy shot toward them at head level.

"_Duck!_" Haruka shouted as she leaped head first to the stone floor. The other three senshi did the same, rolling over their shoulders and landing in a low crouch.

"I think we've been discovered," Michiru said dryly.

"It took them long enough," Haruka grumbled. She started to push herself to her feet but stopped when another laser-like stream of dark energy flew over her head.

"Okay, I've had enough of this," Makoto said as she narrowed her eyes in fury. The antenna within her tiara rose and sparked with green electricity as she gathered the energy for her attack.

"Jupiter, watch out!" Setsuna yelled in panic as yet another red blast headed down the hall, aimed squarely at the chest of the green-skirted senshi.

"Supreme Thunder!" Makoto exclaimed with unusual passion as a cascade of green lightning flowed from her fingertips and down the hall. It collided with the beam of negative energy, causing the youma's attack to dissipate mere feet before it could strike her. Her own assault continued down the hallway and crashed into the unseen youma, eliciting a raucous shriek that echoed through the hallway.

"I… I think it's clear now," Makoto said. She couldn't help but smile after defeating a youma on her own for the first time.

"Okay, enough gloating," Haruka dryly said as she sensed the brunette's pleasure without turning toward her. "We have to hurry and get to the princess."

The four senshi continued their sprint to the end of the hall and were thrilled to find no more surprises waiting for them. The quaking that had slowed their escape and alerted the Dark Kingdom to their presence had waned considerably since their decision to obliterate the control room. All they had to do from that point was locate their princess within the labyrinthine base. A difficult task that inadvertently was made much, much easier by someone who usually knew better than to lose awareness of his surroundings.

—|1|2|3|4|**5**|6|7|—

Mamoru struggled to turn furious eyes that at one point were dark blue to the woman he wished would suffer a horrifically painful demise. His former identity may have loved the self-appointed queen, but he wasn't that person anymore, and it was obvious she wasn't the same individual either. At that specific moment, he hated Beryl with all his soul, and it had nothing to do with her desire to conquer the Earth. He detested her for that too, but it was more businesslike, a consequence of his role as prince of the Earth and its primary defender. However, having witnessed the extent to which that patently evil woman had manipulated Usagi's emotions to the point of convincing her to commit suicide, he wanted her dead. Even if she weren't a magically enabled human driven by an extraterrestrial being, he would have wanted Beryl dead, and by his own hand no less. He would not allow anyone to get away with doing something so atrocious to a girl he cared for so deeply, if not loved.

It was not to say his feelings for Ami had changed one bit, even after her death. He loved the girl for her intelligence and her demureness and maturity relative to the childishness that Usagi had displayed. The fact they had similar aspirations helped develop their relationship beyond their initial acquaintanceship and burgeoning friendship. They had spent so much time together studying for a future career in medicine, and with his advanced position in school and her natural brilliance, it resulted in a perfect match. Their relationship blossomed from there, with the pair spending so much time together doing activities other than studying. Eventually, he determined that there was no point in pretending that he cared for Usagi the same way. As far as he could tell, the blonde just would not grow up and possess any semblance of responsibility. The only problem with that reasoning was that Usagi eventually did mature and become a far more responsible—and far more intriguing—young woman.

"Don't you see that you cannot stop that which is destiny?" Beryl pleaded in a tone that was less angry than before.

"I am not going to give up! There is too much to lose to let you have your way!" Mamoru resolutely shouted as he rose to his feet, an incredible feat given his proximity to the queen's dark energy.

Before he could lunge at the woman once again, he was disrupted by a ferocious roar and bright flash of gold light that filled the entire room. A cold wind that accompanied the explosion of sound and luminescence quickly faded after rustling the few loose items in the room. Mamoru turned his head toward the source of the blast of light and immediately sank back to the ground in disillusionment. In the middle of the expansive throne room was a tall, silver-haired man with whom he was intimately familiar crouching over the unmoving body of Sailor Venus. Next to him was an utterly exotic but unknown blond-haired woman who had enveloped Sailor Mars from behind in a tight bear hug. He inferred that she was associated with the Dark Kingdom in some way, elevated to work with the Shitennou given that they were short two members. Whatever her relationship to them, he could tell that she was enormously powerful and darkly evil. Nevertheless, their presence signaled to him that his situation was far worse than it appeared even seconds earlier.

"Ah, Kunzite," Beryl eagerly began as she greeted the confident man, "do you have the brooch?"

"Absolutely, your highness," Kunzite answered as he reached into the inner pocket of his jacket and withdrew the gleaming gold ornament. He walked over to Beryl and gently dropped the brooch into her waiting hand.

"And I see that the two of you have successfully brought the remaining senshi," she said with curious glee and a wide smile. "I am very happy with both of you."

"What do you want with us?" Rei angrily asked as her eyes were locked on her red-haired foe.

"Me? Absolutely nothing," Beryl wryly responded. She then turned and pointed an open hand to the pigtailed blonde standing on the other side of the throne. "Your princess, however, seems to want a word with you."

"My princess?" Rei disbelievingly asked as she ogled the girl. The only way she could recognize her was through her trademark pigtails and odangos and her short stature, as the dowdy black robes had concealed her figure. Her incredulity morphed into anger. "What the hell are _you_ doing here?" she irately asked as she glared viciously at Usagi.

Mamoru interjected before Usagi could open her mouth. "She was captured by them," he furiously replied, "partially due to _your_ stubbornness and unwillingness to see the truth."

"Captured? Hell, it looks like she went with them willingly!" Rei shouted as she intensified her glower. The hatred that boiled within her was revealed by the remarkable transformation of her normally violet eyes to blood red. "She's probably the one who sent those bastards to capture us, almost killing Mina— Venus in the process," she added with just enough self-control to catch the slip she almost made.

"Mamoru, Rei… please stop," Usagi said calmly, almost with melancholy but for the slight edge to her voice that lingered from her earlier bout of irritation at the raven-haired man. Just like before, it was a peculiar form of tranquility, one that combined abject depression with a steely sense of determination. Whatever it was, it—along with the use of her real name in the presence of the enemy—startled Rei away from her unbridled loathing of the blonde.

"Usagi…" Rei softly muttered.

"There is no need for you to be angry at me anymore," Usagi stated while gazing serenely at the understandably perplexed senshi of fire. She stepped down the platform and walked toward the girl and to the woman who continued to tightly wrap her arms around her.

"Please release her," Usagi requested of Sazaratha, who merely replied by shooting her fellow blonde a quizzical expression. It took a stern nod from Beryl to convince the woman to loosen her grip of the shrine maiden and back away.

Seemingly natural for Rei's temperament, she rapidly slipped back into her angry stance. "Why the hell _shouldn't_ I be angry at you after what you did to me?" she asked with a withering tone.

Usagi shook her head. "You should be angry at me," she evenly replied. "I deserve every bit of anger and hatred you have for me, and I'm so sorry for all the pain I caused you. But I promise I'll make it up to you."

"How?" Rei curtly asked, although with waning anger that gradually was replaced by befuddlement as she slowly realized Usagi was acting quite differently from the girl she remembered.

"I'll tell you soon, once Minako wakes up," Usagi gently responded while casting a glance at the prone girl.

"Whatever! I'm not going to sit back and let this bitch make Usagi kill—" Mamoru bellowed, his fury directed at Beryl once again. However, he was rudely interrupted by the target of his outburst.

"_Silence!_" Beryl shouted as she abruptly fired a violet blast of negative energy at Mamoru that struck him squarely in the chest and knocked him to his knees. Rei was left aghast at the eruption, while Usagi only lowered her head and sadly shook it. Beryl was shocked at herself for openly attacking the man she wished would have peacefully joined her in the present. Given the irrevocable closure of that avenue, she held solace in the fact that he would be hers in the corrected past, courtesy of the princess.

"Now, I know such words may sound awkward coming from my mouth, Sailor Mars, but you should be giving your princess the utmost respect for what she plans to do," Beryl said to Rei with an initially harsh tone that calmed with her next sentence. "It is true that she did a lot to hurt the girls she called her friends and guardians, with you in particular taking the brunt of the pain. However, you must understand that she will atone for your suffering, and will do so freely."

Rei's eyes, having since returned to their normal violet hue, caught the guilty expression that Usagi fleetingly displayed upon Beryl's insinuation of the incident during which she accidentally exposed the fiery girl to severe injury. It was a face that she had seen many times and, in her rage, dismissed as either fake or pointless. This time was different as she fully sensed and appreciated the tremendous sincerity behind the look despite its transient nature. It confused her to no end, as she was still furious at her for that and for allowing Ami's death—Mamoru's explanation notwithstanding. Furthermore, a large part of her mind refused to accept Usagi's legitimacy as princess. However, with both Mamoru and her abhorrent enemy referring to the blonde as the princess, she started to ponder the possibilities that either everyone but them were misguided or that _they_ were the mistaken ones. She had no idea what she would think if it turned out to be the latter. Either way, she was perplexed by the queen's words as the woman seemed to sympathize with her pain. She never imagined Beryl as the compassionate type. It completely disrupted any train of thought that may have lead to a response.

Fortunately for the befuddled senshi, her partner chose that moment to finally return to consciousness. Minako's light groans and slow stirring attracted everyone's attention and released a significant fraction of Rei's pent-up stress.

"I see you're finally starting to awaken, Sailor Venus," Beryl said to as the girl gradually opened her eyes and blinked several times, as though she was trying to reacquaint herself with the sense of vision. "Try not to be frightened about where you are right now."

"Your highness, it may take her a few more minutes before she's fully awake," Sazaratha said with a trace of arrogance in her voice. "I did hit her with a fairly powerful attack, after all. I'm just amazed she survived."

"Don't gloat," Beryl said as she firmly admonished her newest general. She then turned her red eyes back to the groggy blonde.

"W-where am I?" Minako tentatively asked as she attempted to scan her surroundings, both sets of them. Another minute would pass before she could properly focus her eyes.

"You're in my throne room," Beryl coolly answered. "As for my identity, I am Beryl, Queen of the Kingdom of Earth."

Minako reflexively cringed when she heard the name, but as she slowly comprehended the information her eyes and Beryl's words told her, she felt even sicker. How could she have found herself inside of the Dark Kingdom? Was she captured? The last thing she remembered, _barely_, was fighting that haughty blond woman while trying to assuage a massive headache. Also, why were Usagi and Mamoru there? Especially Usagi. Unlike Mamoru, she didn't seem to be in pain or trying to resist the enemy at all. Was she a traitor after all, as she had suspected? Those were the questions that swam about her brain, during the brief moments it didn't feel like it was on the verge of exploding. However, she opted to ask a far simpler question.

"What's going on?" she asked as she finally found an object onto which she could focus her eyes and clear her vision. That object happened to be the queen's dark throne.

"Your princess requested your presence here," Beryl said while pointing toward a somber Usagi.

Minako directed her heavy eyes to the blonde standing on the other side of the obsidian throne from Beryl. "She is not my princess," she harshly uttered.

"Oh, but I assure you she is, Venus," Beryl retorted. "She very much is your princess. If you had remembered that, then we might not be having this conversation right now." She briefly paused as a tiny smile appeared on her lips. "On the other hand, it's probably the best thing for all parties involved," she eagerly added.

"Wh-what do you mean?" Minako hesitantly asked.

"That explanation is best left to your princess," Beryl replied as she slid behind her throne and, with a curt nod, ceded to Usagi the unbroken attention of everyone within the chamber.

—|1|2|3|4|5|**6**|7|—

The four senshi dashed down the almost pitch-black hallway as quickly yet as quietly as they could. They had no idea where it lead, only that it shuttled them farther away from the control room they had destroyed. It seemed that most of the Dark Kingdom was nothing more than a maze of poorly lit corridors with the occasional odd room that connected to yet another darkened corridor. One of those rooms became an unexpected blessing for the women as Setsuna shuttled them into it at the last minute, closing the simple wooden door with a light thud.

"What are—" Haruka's question died on her lips when she felt a hand slide over her mouth.

"Get to the back of the room, and fast," Setsuna whispered as softly as she could before pushing the group toward the back wall.

All four women crouched in the rear of the small chamber that, fortunately, was not occupied by any other creatures. It was painfully obvious they were hiding within someone's living quarters. They didn't know whether the normal occupant was a youma or something closer to human, but the small details scattered about the place seemed to point to the latter. Quite strongly, actually, but they weren't about to concern themselves with that when they had a more pressing issue to handle. It manifested itself as a loud series of taps that suspiciously slowed immediately next to the door.

"What's going on?" Makoto asked with a voice that barely was audible.

"Zoisite," was Setsuna's lone whispered reply.

Indeed, the blond-haired general was standing outside the door, his curiosity piqued by a strange sensation he detected on the other side. It was an amalgamation of faint and completely unfamiliar energy signatures. Had he opened the door and peered within the room, he would have learned they belonged to a quartet of Sailor Senshi. Instead he was distracted by yet another rumbling in the distance, and he departed from the door, walking away from the very people who unknowingly created the quakes.

"How did you know it was him?" Michiru innocently asked.

"I could feel him," Setsuna calmly answered as she swiftly stood. "He emits a distinctive negative energy that I can feel from quite a distance." She paused and briefly closed her eyes while a veil of concentration covered her face. "It must be an effect of being here that I can feel him from much farther away than normal," she added as her eyes reopened.

"What's normal?" Haruka bluntly asked.

"Approximately ten meters," Setsuna plainly answered. She carefully walked to the door and opened it before tentatively peering into the direction she felt the general travel. "He has to be about one hundred meters away now," she whispered over her shoulder.

"Cool," the sandy-haired blonde replied in turn. She pushed herself upright and walked to the door beside Setsuna. "Anyway, we should probably get out of here now that he's gone," she said impatiently.

"Wait, Uranus," Setsuna emphatically whispered. "I think it's better that we stay here just a short while longer."

"Why?" Haruka responded with more annoyance evident in her tone. "We have to hurry and get to the princess." That sentiment was echoed by the other two senshi behind her.

"I know. However, I think it may benefit us to follow Zoisite when he returns," Setsuna said more evenly.

"What? Do you sense that he'll lead us where we want to go?" Michiru intently asked with widening eyes.

"I'm not entirely certain, but while he stood there I could gather a series of probabilities of what he would do in the future," the enigmatic senshi tranquilly replied. "The highest of them was that he would rush by here a few minutes from now, heading toward someplace important."

"And that place is where the princess is being held?" Makoto gently asked.

Setusna shook her head. "I'm not sure. That much I wasn't able to ascertain," she said more sullenly.

"What if he doesn't come back?" Haruka skeptically asked. "Then we'll just be sitting here wasting time as who-knows-what happens to our princess."

"There's always that possibility," Setsuna candidly responded.

Indeed, when she said that Zoisite's return held the highest probability, she purposefully neglected to inform her fellow senshi of the incredibly slim margin between that and the next highest alternative. That one, where Zoisite remained at the control room and merely communicated with his queen via telepathy, had a lower chance of occurring, but only by a few percentage points. Furthermore, neither option had a majority relative to the sum of probabilities. But that was the type of information upon which Setsuna usually had to base her predictions, and so she was unfazed by the possibility of guessing incorrectly.

Fortunately for the senshi of time her forecast was spot on as she rapidly felt the surge of Zoisite's dark energy long before she heard the approaching footsteps. The group slowly ducked back into the room as the general bolted past them, this time oblivious to their presence. Setsuna cautiously opened the door and glanced in the direction of the waning echoes.

"Okay, let's go," she said evenly as she stepped out into the hallway.

The other senshi followed suit, and soon all four were shadowing the general through the myriad of corridors as they progressed deeper into the heart of the Dark Kingdom. They were careful to evade any youmas or other guards they found while staying within the wide field of energy that Zoisite emitted. A fight at that juncture only would have slowed them down and alerted others to their presence, further hindering their mission. Eventually, they found the young Shitennou general standing at the grand entrance of a large, round chamber.

"What is that?" Haruka cautiously whispered. She wasn't one to be so careful, but the situation she could see in front of her forced her to shelve her typical cockiness.

"Our destination," Setsuna dryly replied in an equally soft voice.

"But… how do we get in?" Michiru asked as she warily pushed her body off the wall she tightly hugged in order to obtain a better view before quickly pressing herself against the rough surface once again.

"I guess we can't just walk in?" Makoto hesitantly asked.

"You must not be able to see what we see," Haruka matter-of-factly answered.

What she and Michiru could somewhat see, what Makoto from her vantage point could not observe, and what Setsuna could more readily witness was a large circular hallway that directly abutted the room they wished to enter. There was a pair of large doors that appeared to be constructed from solid granite that were polished well enough to reflect the torchlight. The walls of the chamber also seemed smoother than the barrier against which the women closely stood in an attempt to conceal their positions. However, what interested and concerned the senshi—excluding Makoto—the most were the guards that lined the hallway.

Setsuna estimated that there were dozens of guards just on that hemisphere of the circle. They wore uniforms that were similar to the gray suits the Shitennou wore except the jackets and trousers were steel blue. Most of the guards were holding halberds whereas a few others, the ones equipped with thick white belts, were armed with swords. All of them were standing attentively and indubitably were prepared to deal with an intruder at a moment's notice. They were so skeptical about anyone approaching that they even stopped and inspected Zoisite before allowing him to enter the chamber. However, the one detail that gave the senshi pause was that all of the guards were human. Most clearly were men while a few were women, but all of them appeared to be as well versed in physical combat as Haruka and superior in skill to Makoto. The brunette fully understood and appreciated her fellow senshi's hesitation once the information of the layout filtered down to her.

"So… dozens of human guards," Haruka whispered in a pensive tone. "I guess it's better than dozens of youmas. If we charge with full attacks we may be able to break in before reinforcements can help them."

"We can't kill fellow humans," Makoto firmly protested.

"If you haven't noticed, they're our enemy, and they have our princess," Michiru heatedly retorted, although she was thoughtful enough to continue whispering.

"Th- there always is a better way," Makoto uttered. Her voice wavered slightly as she spoke the words that seemed to come not from her rational mind but from someplace deeper within her soul.

"What the hell does that even mean?" Haruka exasperatedly asked.

"It's the old senshi mantra," Setsuna quietly answered as she turned her head over her shoulder to gaze at her partners.

"Well, it's a silly mantra in this situation," an annoyed Michiru said.

Makoto turned away from the older senshi and closed her eyes as she contemplated what she should do. She desperately wanted to rescue Usagi, but at the same time she did not want to kill people in the process. She felt no sympathy for any youmas she destroyed, but slaying humans, even if they were evil and worked with the enemy, was a different matter. An ironic notion, to be sure, given that not even twenty-four hours ago she was attacking the most important human being on the planet. Maybe it was her immense regret for trying to kill Usagi that made her shun the desire to wantonly slaughter the guards. In any case, the guards weren't going to leave anytime soon, and they needed to find some way inside that room.

"Maybe we could just stun them," Makoto timidly suggested with a tentative shrug.

"You do realize even our weakest attacks are utterly lethal to humans, right?" Michiru asked with an air of disbelief.

"Maybe not stun, but distract," Setsuna calmly proffered. "If we can create a reason for a few of the guards to leave, then it would make our progression to the door much easier."

At that moment the entire cavernous complex seemed to quake violently for several seconds, to the point where stone debris fell from the ceiling. The senshi ducked and covered their heads with their arms to avoid injury, and from the corner of her eyes Setsuna could see many of the guards doing the same thing. Their first supposition was that whatever they had triggered when they destroyed the control room wasn't quite finished. However, they hadn't felt any rumbling for several minutes. Furthermore, that control room was distant, whereas the shaking they felt seemed to come from a much closer location. That sudden eruption unnerved them, but it also stimulated the creativity of a certain blonde.

"What if we take out the ceilings?" Haruka excitedly whispered while pointing to the large cracks that appeared overhead. "I'm certain my attack is strong enough to blast enough of the rock from the ceiling to create a pretty large barrier."

Setsuna's eyes widened and a tiny smile tugged at her lips. "That might actually work," she replied. "It also wouldn't require us killing them. There would still be the two guards at the door, but that's a much easier fight," she said while gazing directly at Makoto.

"We'll leave those two to you, Jupiter," Michiru said with a wink, leaving a thoroughly startled brunette before turning to face her partner and lover. "I'll take the left side, while you take the right," she said with a commanding tone.

"Whatever. Either way those ceilings are coming down," Haruka replied more arrogantly. She stealthily rolled over her shoulder to the other side of the hall, pressing her back against the wall as before to hide herself from the guards.

Setsuna shuffled past Michiru and stood next to the still anxious Makoto. "I'm sure you'll know what to do in order to not kill them," she said while gently placing a hand on the girl's shoulder to reassure her. "In any case, once you take care of them, I'll blast open the door."

Makoto slowly nodded and closed her eyes as she searched for a way to attack the human guards without taking their lives. She gasped as she found the answer much more quickly than she expected. In fact she felt silly for almost missing such an obvious solution.

"Is everyone ready?" Setsuna asked. All three senshi resolutely nodded in reply.

After a count of three and a pair of loud shouts that indubitably attracted the attention of the closest sentries, two spheres of positive energy, one gold and the other cyan, raced toward the ceiling at opposite ends of the door. Immediately after the twin impacts, large slabs of dark gray stone collapsed to the floor and fell atop one another. The piles didn't quite reach the ceiling, but they were tall enough to hinder any rapid attempt to intercept the senshi. It also completely surprised and discombobulated the otherwise professional sentinels as evidenced by their raucous shouting. The outer senshi completed their task of impeding the bulk of the guards. As planned, only two completely stunned guards remained. If they knew any better, they would have felt eternally grateful that the opponent they would face was Makoto and not any of the other senshi.

The senshi of lightning stepped into the middle of the hallway and appeared to stare at the two men. They were quite formidable opponents once the initial shock wore off and they resorted to their immense training. The two sentries hesitantly approached the darkened corridor with their swords drawn and leveled at the girl who stood about fifteen feet away. They were cautious as she had already extended the antenna from the jewel of her tiara and was gathering the green lightning within her hands. It was an obvious sign to them to not risk close combat but instead employ ranged attacks using the magic within their blades. Unfortunately for them they would not have the time to initiate their attacks.

"Supreme Thunder!" Makoto yelled as the intense bolt of lightning leapt from her hands. Unlike a normal assault she did not aim the lightning at either individual. Instead she allowed the lightning to strike evenly between both men. The resulting impact and explosion tossed the guards sideways and into the stone barrier, knocking them out cold. However, the minute rise and fall of their chests indicated their survival.

Makoto didn't have much time to celebrate before she saw the massive violet orb rush past her head and slam into the granite door, creating a giant hole.

"Let's _go_!" Setsuna emphatically yelled with a lowered pitch to her commanding voice, and the four senshi burst from the hallway and into the room via the improvised entrance she had provided. Only when they passed the threshold did they know they found exactly who they were looking for. And the discovery horrified them.

—|1|2|3|4|5|6|**7**|—

Usagi slowly stepped away from the obsidian throne, her calm eyes alternatively directed at the befuddled stare of the raven-haired shrine maiden or the disbelieving gaze of the blonde. She knew the girls did not believe in her legitimacy as the princess, her skills as a senshi, or her abilities or intelligence as a normal girl. Deep within her soul those doubts made her feel absolutely dreadful, and the emotion heaped extra pressure upon an already stressed individual. Her unwavering determination to do what she believed was the proper thing drove her up to that point. The presence of her former friends reminded her of why she needed to successfully accomplish her goal and simultaneously frightened her of the prospect of failure. She absolutely could not fail in front of them. Not again. She took a deep breath and slowly exhaled the air to settle both her mind and her heart.

"Rei… Minako…" Usagi hesitantly began with a tone of dejection. She knew exactly what she wanted to say, but suddenly found it incredibly difficult for her to spit out the words. "I'm sorry… I'm truly sorry for all the pain I caused you to feel ever since. Especially to you Rei," she said as she focused her gaze on the startled girl. "I have been nothing but a terrible senshi and as a result I put you all in situations that have hurt you, and maybe could have done worse."

"Usagi, I…" Rei said in a surprisingly sympathetic tone, but was interrupted by the raised hand and shaking head of the pigtailed blonde.

"It's absolutely true," Usagi continued as tears welled at the base of her eyes. Her cadence slowed and became agonizingly hesitant. "I did push you into the path of that laser. I did almost kill you. I didn't mean to. I absolutely didn't mean to, but I did." She paused as she took yet another deep breath, but there was no sign it helped calm her. "And then, Ami. I could have saved her from her horrible death, but I didn't," she melancholically said. "I couldn't. I failed because I didn't know that I could have left much earlier than I did, because I'm a horrible senshi."

If Usagi wasn't intently focused on the senshi in front of her, and if her vision hadn't become blurred by tears, she would have detected the wide smirk on Kunzite's lips. Maybe she wouldn't have continued with her depressed speech, but by then it was a moot point.

"The thing that connected your suffering, Rei, and Ami's death was my presence," Usagi said, by then the tears streaming unabated. "My very existence. If I weren't such a klutz at the time you wouldn't have been hurt. If I were smarter I would have known I could have saved Ami much earlier. Both of those incidents entirely were my fault."

She lifted a hand and softly brushed away the tears from her reddened cheeks. The last thing she wanted to do was cry, especially in front of them. She needed to be strong so that she couldn't fail them at that juncture the way she did in the past. Her body trembled almost imperceptibly as her fervent resolve to overcome her pesky apprehension combined with a mysterious dull pain within her chest. She had endured it for the past several minutes, and it only worsened despite any attempts to assuage the pain. Nevertheless, she desired to hide her agony as she deemed it unimportant.

"It seems I only exist to bring absolute misery to others no matter what I do," Usagi morosely continued. "Almost everyone I know and love was hurt in some way that I either caused or could have prevented. In fact, all of this—" she waved her hands around to emphasize her point— "this conflict, this needless fighting, this death… all of it was my fault. If it weren't for me destroying Endymion's engagement to Beryl in the past, she wouldn't have attacked the moon in the first place."

Both Rei and Minako stared at Usagi in stunned silence, their mouths partially agape. Whether or not they considered her the princess, whether or not they liked her, both were moot points at the moment. They were totally enraptured by the remarkable statement the girl had just uttered. Usagi was blaming herself for the collapse of the Silver Millennium. At almost the same time they wanted to say that it was an impossible circumstance as she wasn't even alive then. Even if she was the princess—and they still had doubts—she was the _reincarnation_ of the princess's soul and not the actual woman. In other words, she was still just a fourteen year-old girl despite her alternate identities. And now she was a horribly misguided fourteen year-old girl who was confusing the hell out of them with every word she spoke.

Usagi placed both hands on her chest, mainly to clutch at the spot where she felt the worst pain. "However, I know I can correct all of my mistakes," she said softly with a weak smile on her lips. She wanted to show enthusiasm despite the acute distress that partially debilitated her. "I know how to make it all better, so that nobody will have to suffer anymore because of me… so that nobody has to fight anymore because of me."

She couldn't take the throbbing pain within her chest anymore and abruptly collapsed to her knees. Before anyone could rush to her side to assist her, a brilliant pink light exploded from her body and flooded the room. A tremendous wind accompanied the sudden blast and swirled about the round chamber. Usagi had experienced both phenomena before as they were the typical side effects of her transformation to Princess Serenity. However, she immediately recognized that this was something different as she managed to glance at herself and see that she still wore the dark robes her captors had given her. Because of that she reasoned the incident had nothing to do with that conversion. Furthermore, she never caused the entire room to shake whenever she adopted the appearance of the princess. The violent quaking lasted for seconds and forced everyone to crouch as it was physically impossible for anyone to remain standing. It also caused extensive damage to the façade and the underlying structure of the throne room.

However, not a single person noticed the destruction as every eye in the room was transfixed upon the gleaming object that hovered in front of Usagi's chest. It was the item the Dark Kingdom had desired and waged war over ever since its creation. It was the entity that the two senshi lying on the stone floor thought they had captured, safeguarded, and then lost. Most importantly, it was the thing that Usagi thought she had given up to preserve her life and her future at the cost of her friendships: the Silver Crystal. She tenderly clutched the lotus-shaped crystal in the palms of her hands, causing it to release a dazzling white glow. The light seemed to soothe her corporeal pain, but the anguish within her heart remained. That would only disappear with her impending use of the crystal.

"I guess I don't need this thing anymore," Beryl said as she idly tossed the brooch aside and pushed herself to her feet. It clanged against the hard floor and rattled about the room until the wind that carried it pushed it against the wall near the set of double-doors that stood opposite the throne.

The crouching Mamoru turned a morose stare toward Usagi and attempted one last-ditch plea to convince her to stop. "Usagi! Don't do this! _Please_!" he implored her, shouting as loud as he could so she could hear him over the roar of the wind. He successfully caught her attention, but his heart sank in his chest when her only response was to slowly shake her head and mouth the words "it is better this way."

Usagi then closed her eyes and slipped into her deepest concentration yet. She needed every bit of her skill and energy to correctly relay her intent to the crystal she caressed in her hands. Any mistake or disruption, no matter how tiny, would halt the spell and cause her to fail at the single most important task she ever attempted. The pink aura flared around her petite figure once again and the ongoing wind strengthened, making it all but impossible for anyone to approach the girl.

"Dear crystal," Usagi began to chant with curious tranquility, almost as though the words spilling from her mouth were not her own. "I beg you to listen to my request and to grant me the power to complete my wish."

The white light intensified and gathered a secondary hue of pink that shone from the center of the flower-shaped crystal. She smiled as she bathed in the warmth and positive energy that the cherished crystal provided, secure in the knowledge that it would heed her vital command. Everything was working, and she felt as though nothing could disturb her. Not even the massive blast and tremors that emanated from the other side of the massive doors.

"Please, crystal, grant me the power to atone for the mistakes I have committed and the anguish I caused others to endure in the present," Usagi prayed. The crystal responded by ushering the creation of a faint pink sphere that eventually would completely envelop the blonde.

A second after the words escaped her lips a gargantuan hole suddenly appeared within the substantial double-doors, accompanied by the random distribution of granite shards across the floor. The explosion that produced the opening shook the room once again, immediately drawing the attention of everyone except the blonde. She was almost completely oblivious to the action occurring right in front of her as manipulating the Silver Crystal took a tremendous amount of her concentration.

"Grant me the power to reverse the conflict that I had initiated in the past and to prevent the hatred and warfare that lead to the deaths of many and the collapse of the once-great kingdom you protected," Usagi said more fervently, eliciting yet brighter light from the crystal and a more solid appearance to the sphere surrounding her. "Dear Silver Crystal, please give me the energy I need to prevent the needless suffering of everyone I have encountered in the past and the present by entirely removing my existence from the streams of time."

That was it. She had informed the crystal of her purest intentions. To the horrified stares of Mamoru and her fellow senshi, especially the four newcomers, she had declared her wish. All she had to do was give one last magical incantation and the work of the mystical crystal would begin. She opened her mouth to deliver those crucial words.

"Princess Serenity! Hear my words and open your eyes!" she heard a woman's voice shout over the howling wind.

It was an eerily familiar voice, one that felt almost ancient to her ears despite never having seen or heard the owner. Yet it compelled her and overcame her own resolute complaints to ignore the curious distraction. She slowly opened her eyes and peered through the light-pink haze that contorted her vision. At the very rear of the chamber she perceived a quartet of women in short skirts evocative of the senshi uniform. One of the women appeared intimately familiar to her mind while two others were complete strangers. However, the senshi that immediately attracted her attention was the most esoteric woman from the group, the one who stood out from the rest. She was the one who held a suspiciously recognizable key-like staff that emitted an intensely bright garnet light capable of overpowering the almost blinding white and pink light of her crystal. At that exact moment she recalled the evocative words of an enigmatic being whose burgeoning presence she felt for the last time.


	36. Serenity Requested, a Soldier Received

**Chapter 36: Serenity Requested, a Soldier Received**

Usagi was startled by the sudden voice in her head, one that was very different from the deeper tone of a more mature woman she had heard only seconds earlier. This voice came from deep within her soul and was immediately familiar to her, for it sounded much like her own. But she knew it could not have been hers, for it was not the first time she had conversed with its owner. No, it was the unmistakable voice that belonged to the waning spirit of the ancient Princess Serenity.

"_Princess, please listen to me,"_ Serenity begged Usagi within her mind.

"_Serenity…"_ a stunned Usagi replied in her thoughts.

"_You cannot complete that wish upon the Silver Crystal,"_ Serenity firmly stated. _"Please, recant the wish as quickly as possible."_

"_Why?"_ Usagi responded more indignantly. _"Why can't I do what I absolutely need to in order to save the people I love?"_

"_Because…"_ Serenity briefly paused to ensure what she wanted to say had the proper effect. _"Because, if you carry out that wish, the people you love and think you are saving in actuality will be forced to endure far worse agony than anything they currently feel."_

Usagi's eyes widened momentarily, but then fell to their normal size as her dejection overtook her emotions. _"But, how could they suffer anymore in my absence than what they have to go through now?"_ she morosely countered. _"How can Ami be worse off than dead? What about my parents and my brother?"_

"_I don't truly believe your family is lost,"_ Serenity flatly replied. _"I don't believe that anyone you have encountered is lost. Your abilities and your enormous capacity for love are far too great for me to think that you could possibly fail to protect any of them."_

"_But, I saw them die right in front of me,"_ Usagi said as fresh tears welled in her eyes.

Serenity released a discontented sigh, which greatly unnerved the blonde. _"I know you did,"_ she said tenderly, but also with a hint of annoyance. _"However, I saw something completely different. I saw three people who did not look at all like they went through an automobile accident."_

"_What are you saying?"_ Usagi perplexedly asked.

"_I'm saying continue to believe in yourself to the same extent Saeko believes in you,"_ Serenity replied. Usagi felt a spark of recognition when the ancient spirit mentioned Ami's mother. _"She did not work so hard to help you only for you to throw it all away like you seem destined to do. What would she think? What would your parents and your brother think?"_

"_They're not dead?"_ Usagi asked with muted optimism.

Serenity chuckled, which almost was an absurdly inappropriate response given the emotional state of her partner, but she couldn't help herself. _"Unless they somehow discovered the ancient medical skills of the Silver Millennium, they should still show palpable signs of an injury they suffered not even one day ago,"_ Serenity said lightheartedly.

Usagi felt like displaying the widest smile she possibly could when she realized what her alternate personality had just said. However, that elation was stifled by the lingering memories of Ami's death and the many others who she liked and loved who suffered in her presence. Furthermore, she was intrigued by what it was she did see if it wasn't the deaths of her family members, and she wanted to know why the princess didn't warn her earlier.

"_Why didn't you try to stop me?"_ Usagi asked with a combination of innocent curiosity and reasonable irritation.

"_I tried, but my voice was so weak it couldn't get through to you,"_ Serenity solemnly responded. _"I guess that was understandable, given that I was using my remaining power for other purposes."_

"_Such as?"_ Usagi pressed.

"_Hiding the Silver Crystal within your body from detection from Beryl or anyone else who thought to search you for it,"_ Serenity said matter-of-factly.

That answer delivered yet another surprise to an already thoroughly shocked girl. _"You're saying I had the crystal within my body the entire time?"_ she asked vociferously. If she were speaking aloud with the same level of volume she addressed the ancient princess she would have attracted quite the curious stare.

"_I did say, after all, that you'd be quite surprised at what you're capable of doing,"_ Serenity wryly replied before taking a more gentle tone. _"In any case, I deeply apologize, but they needed to think that it was anywhere but on your person. Otherwise, the process of searching you for the crystal and extracting it from your body would have killed you. I'm sure you felt an extreme amount of pain withdrawing the crystal when you actually wanted to do so."_

Usagi immediately recalled the excruciating throbbing within her chest, a sensation she likened to what a person would feel if their heart suddenly exploded. _"Yes, it was extremely painful,"_ she somberly replied. _"I didn't know if I would survive it, let alone know that it was the removal of the crystal from my body."_

"_The fact that you _did_ survive extracting the crystal from your body without a transformation to your princess form is a testament of your immense power,"_ Serenity said emphatically. _"That is why you can't give up and think that destroying yourself will save anyone. You have your powers specifically so that you can save people, and you haven't failed to save anyone yet."_

"_What about Ami?"_ Usagi asked. The mere utterance of the name almost drove her to tears, but she managed to control her emotions.

"_That was not your failure,"_ Serenity firmly replied. _"In fact, having seen and experienced firsthand the weapon with which she was supposedly killed, I'm not sure it was a failure at all."_ She considered stopping there, but her innate sense of Usagi's turbulent emotional state compelled the princess to quickly continue. _"By that, I'm saying I strongly doubt Ami is dead."_

"_Not… dead…?"_ Usagi tentatively asked. It was one more unanticipated revelation on top of several that seemed to collapse upon her all at once.

"_I understand what happened to her much better now that it also happened to you. The only difference is you were significantly more powerful and, as such, the stone could not completely absorb your soul,"_ Serenity evenly replied. _"It was a horribly painful experience for her, but as long as the stone used against her still exists, so does Ami."_

Usagi felt an overwhelming sense of joy creep into her body at the news that her best friend may have been alive after all. Her only task would be to recover the sapping stone and derive some way of extracting Ami's soul. It wasn't a straightforward mission to be sure, but it was vastly simpler and more worthwhile to her than eliminating herself from existence. But there remained two more compelling reasons for her to carry out her present objective.

"_What about Mariko, Azusa, and the others?"_ Usagi somberly questioned.

"_They're not gone,"_ Serenity optimistically answered. _"So long as Kunzite still exists their souls can be recovered. I'm sure you'll succeed at purifying him now that you have some loyal senshi available to assist you. That's yet another reason you need to continue on in this life."_

"_But what about the past life?"_ Usagi asked in a tone that was a lot less depressed and a lot more inquisitive. _"If I didn't exist—"_

Serenity strongly felt the need to interrupt Usagi once she mentioned the ancient era. _"You _didn't_ exist! I _did_!"_ she forcefully replied, startling the blonde yet again. _"The mere fact that you're talking to me, the reincarnated soul of my past self, means that you're not me and could not have been responsible for anything that happened at that time."_

"_Okay, okay… I get it,"_ Usagi said resignedly. _"I was about to do something completely stupid. But how do I stop this now that I've already made a wish onto the crystal?"_

"_As long as you don't say the magical incantation to activate the crystal and have it carry out your wish, you can add or subtract any number of wishes you want, limited by your own power, of course,"_ Serenity said calmly. _"So, if you suddenly don't want the crystal to do something you previously desired, just tell the crystal to grant you the power to remove your wish."_

"_Wait… it's that easy?"_ Usagi asked with a disbelieving tone.

"_As incredulous as it sounds, yes,"_ Serenity plainly responded. She gave the blonde a few moments to get over her blatant astonishment before speaking once again. _"Now, I have a much better wish for you to place upon the crystal, one that is far less painful and actually requires far less energy than you think."_

"_And what is that wish?"_ Usagi eagerly inquired.

"_To allow your complete ascension to Princess Serenity the Sixth and to give you absolute control of your transformation and your added capabilities as princess,"_ Serenity said. _"Furthermore, I want to combine my remaining powers, weak as they may be, with yours so that you may be even stronger in the fight against the Dark Kingdom and any other beings that may threaten this planet."_

Usagi smiled outwardly before twisting her facial expressions in confusion. _"The sixth? Didn't you say before that I would become Princess Serenity the Fifth?"_ she pointedly asked.

Serenity chuckled, obviously feeling both nervous and embarrassed, which was quite strange for Usagi to hear. _"I did say that, but my original intention was that you would effectively serve out my term as princess, as you were supposed to be my reincarnated self,"_ she sheepishly replied at first before regaining her typical poise. _"However, you are far too kind and too powerful for such poor treatment. You are very much your own princess and you deserve to be remembered as such. Thus you would be Serenity the Sixth and not the Fifth."_

"_I understand,"_ Usagi said cheerfully as her smile returned, only to be extinguished once again by the ancient spirit.

"_Once I give you my remaining power my soul will no longer inhabit your body,"_ Serenity said dejectedly. _"I know your possession of my remnant energy is far more important than my selfish desires, but that doesn't mean I won't always miss the time I had with you."_

"_I absolutely will miss you too, Serenity,"_ Usagi replied in a comforting voice. _"However, if there's any good news, you'll get to see your mother once again, as you said earlier. And you two will always be together. You'll never have to worry about not seeing her ever again."_

That statement brought an unseen smile of joy to the lips of the ancient princess. _"That is a good thing after all, isn't it?"_ she said pensively. A few seconds passed where the princess was in deep reflection before she continued to speak. _"Anyway, I think you have something critical to do now, and I shouldn't delay you any longer,"_ she said in her best attempt at enthusiasm, although that more solemn emotion was still evident in her voice.

"_Absolutely,"_ Usagi replied. She bemoaned the being's impending permanent disappearance but at the same time she was happy to see the past finally concluded.

"_Usagi… Princess Serenity, there's one last thing I have to say before I disappear,"_ Serenity said with a soft whisper. _"That is, I believe in you, and I love you very much. As imperfect as you may be and as we all are, the world is much better with your presence than it ever would be without."_

Usagi felt the warm blush spread across her cheeks immediately after hearing the heartfelt confession but was not totally surprised by it. The former princess did spend her entire existence co-inhabiting her body and experiencing every second of her life. So it was only natural that such a strong bond would form. The same was true with Usagi, even though she only learned of the princess's separate personality less than twenty-four hours ago. Therefore, her response was even less extraordinary.

"_I love you too,"_ she said tenderly. _"Thank you very much for protecting me and for guiding me to this point."_

By then, the power that allowed Usagi to communicate with the spirit of the ancient princess had faded, preventing her from hearing any response. She knew it truly was the last time they would coexist and it saddened her, but she found solace in the fact that very soon she would have the power to help everyone she loved. She would use that awesome strength to defeat Beryl and Metalia for good and to restore the lives of her friends—_with_ her continued existence. That would be her new wish upon the Silver Crystal as the modern Princess Serenity.

—|1|**2**|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10|11|12|13|—

The bright pink luminescent sphere swirled around Usagi's figure, obscuring her from the startled gapes or victorious smirks of everyone within the wind-blown room. She was mere seconds away from executing her most devastating wish, one that delighted Beryl and her followers, horrified Mamoru, and utterly confused the two most vulnerable senshi lying before their former friend. The four senshi who dramatically blasted their way into the room had no clue what was occurring with their princess. None of them had ever observed the use of the Silver Crystal and the phenomena that accompanied it. None of them knew the deadly consequences of its use… except for Sailor Pluto.

Unlike her fellow senshi, the Sailor Pluto of the modern era was not the reincarnated soul of any previous senshi. She was the same individual who lived through the end of the Silver Millennium and for thousands of years before that tragic event. Her lifespan was not infinite, as there were three other senshi from Pluto that preceded her during the reign of that great kingdom, but it was significantly longer than the typical lifespan of her brethren. Because of her long duration she had the unfortunate opportunity to witness firsthand one use of the Silver Crystal in a successful but ultimately suicidal attempt to protect the main palace. That was Queen Selenity the Sixth, the royal who had occupied the throne of the Silver Millennium for a scant 350 years before ending her reign and her life to ensure the continuity of the monarchy. Pluto had been summoned to relay some information to the queen regarding suspicious events detected in the outer regions of the solar system and some equally disturbing attacks on the time stream by some foreign entity. That allowed Pluto the opportunity to be nearby Selenity when the surprise assault began. She was the only senshi in position to provide any rapid defense from the formidable foe, with the guardian senshi away at their home planets. If it was a normal attack those princesses-turned-senshi would have had sufficient time to mobilize and travel to the moon, but it was anything but a normal strike. Despite doing her job as well as she could, ultimately it was a losing effort and the palace grounds had come dangerously close to being breached. Fearing for the life of her daughter and her successor, Selenity decided the best strategy was to use the Silver Crystal to eliminate all of the attackers, even if it meant she would no longer have the opportunity to see her young child mature into a beautiful woman and capable queen. Pluto didn't bother trying to argue against her decision as she knew it was the best action for the situation and, per her typical stubbornness, the queen wouldn't have listened anyway. As that gargantuan sphere of white light erupted from the crystal and enveloped everything within their vicinity, destroying all of the invaders while sapping the very soul of the queen, Pluto hoped she would never again have to witness such a heartrending scene. She was lucky, in that self-serving way, to have missed the destruction of the Silver Millennium.

In any case, the sphere that surrounded Usagi was of the exact same wondrous yet horrific energy that had encased Selenity the Sixth that painful day. She knew she had to find some way of stopping the current princess from carrying out whatever wish she had placed upon the crystal. The first thing that came to her mind was to distract Usagi before the girl could finalize the wish and plead to her to reconsider her action. So she raised her Garnet Rod above her head and instructed the orb lodged within to emit a brilliant light with the hope that Usagi would notice it and the words that followed.

"Princess Serenity! Hear my words and open your eyes!" she furiously yelled to lift her voice over the wind.

Several seconds elapsed before Setsuna had a sense that Usagi noticed her words and her presence. When she was certain that the young princess had at least a fraction of her attention, she sent the girl one more message.

"Please, listen to your heart! Don't use the crystal if you don't absolutely have to!" she pleaded with a fervent shout.

The few minutes that elapsed seemed to last an eternity to the senshi of revolution and her dismayed cohorts. The wind continued to whip feverishly about the room and the pink sphere of light and pure energy remained wholly intact. Meanwhile, the guards that had surrounded the chamber attempted to enter through two smaller sets of doors, one apiece on either side of the throne, but were blocked by the tremendous wind. One sentinel who had attempted to crawl into the room was blown about and almost collided with Zoisite before crashing hard into the stone wall. That discouraged the other guards from entering the room until the wind died down.

Eventually the opaque pink sphere that had completely obscured Usagi slowly turned translucent, allowing Setsuna her first view of the girl since her capture. She was apprehensive of the expression of pure determination that was etched on the blonde's face and was most notable in her narrowed and focused sapphire-blue eyes. However, her fear was assuaged when she heard the princess speak.

"Oh, Silver Crystal, please allow me to remove the wishes I had previously requested, for I no longer desire their realization," Usagi stated firmly. The crystal responded by emitting a brief flash of blue light and completely eliminating the pink sphere that had encased the girl. Furthermore, the windstorm slightly decreased in intensity. Both were signs that indicated to the princess her crystal successfully had forgotten her previous intentions and was prepared to receive a new wish.

"Instead, dear Crystal, please grant me the power to assume my true form now and whenever I need to in the future," Usagi resolutely continued. "Please give me the energy necessary to acquire my full capabilities and skills so that I can fight against the evils that plague this Earth and defend the people I love. Allow me access to the remaining power of my predecessor and ensure that her spirit is as loved in the future as it was in my present and her past." She paused momentarily before revealing her final wish and sealing it with a tremendous shout. "Please, dear crystal, accept my legitimacy and grant my full ascension to Princess Serenity the Sixth. As princess of the Moon and its defender, I state faithfully and with all my love… _Silver Crystal Power_!"

Immediately after saying those three final and most critical words, a marvelous white light burst from the crystal and flooded the room. Everyone in the room was utterly amazed and, depending on their viewpoints, horrified at what they saw on the raised platform when the light eventually faded.

The pigtailed blonde no longer wore the morbid black robes that signified her status as a prisoner of the Dark Kingdom. In its place was a gleaming white gown that fully symbolized her regality and her immense power as the newest princess of the Silver Millennium. It bore some similarities to the gown that clothed her whenever she requested the appearance of her predecessor, but in other ways it was remarkably different. In fact, it was more akin to the elegant garb of that ancient princess's mother. The dress was completely sleeveless and more form-fitting, removing the bulbous shoulders and wide skirt of the original. The uppermost few inches of the otherwise pure white bodice consisted of a faint pink halo of fabric that affixed a single large crescent moon of resplendent gold to the middle of her chest. A narrower ring of light pink marked the bottom of a skirt that ended just above the floor. The entirety of the smooth white satin fabric was covered in a multitude of tiny silver specks that reflected the light and created the lustrous effect. Finally, a silver-colored fine silk sash loosely hung around her waist and attached to a large white bow at the rear of the gown. It was a unique costume but one that firmly exhibited Usagi's relationship to her ancestors while highlighting her own substantial powers as a proper and complete princess.

Usagi stood with a blank expression on her face for a few moments as she slowly comprehended the transformation that had occurred. From that moment onward, she truly was the princess, her own princess, without the influence of that ancient spirit. The amount of raw energy that she detected flowing through her body stunned her as it was far greater than any she previously wielded. However, what surprised her even more was the item that she held within her hands. The Silver Crystal, having completed its task, had taken the liberty of returning to its previous location inside of her. Instead, her hands lightly cupped a round, gold brooch that at first glance appeared very similar to the original, but upon deeper examination revealed many distinctive properties. It was larger than the original brooch and the crescent in the center was silver. Four more colored gems joined the initial four stones, their navy blue, sea green, purple, and black hues indubitably representing the newly acquired or soon-to-be awakened outer senshi. The heft of the brooch within her hands was greater than what she remembered. However, despite the alterations, it was still her transformation brooch, and it was the one thing she absolutely needed in her possession for her to achieve those precious goals. And, unlike before, she was not going to surrender the brooch to anyone for any reason.

"What the hell just happened?" Beryl furiously asked with her narrowed red eyes locked on the atrocious sight of the new princess.

"I arrived," Usagi replied with a calm yet tenaciously firm voice. She then lifted her brooch above her head. "_Moon Prism Power, Make Up!_" she shouted, and a bright pink light emanated from her body as she initiated the transformation from her true form as princess to her warrior identity as the great Sailor Moon.

—|1|2|**3**|4|5|6|7|8|9|10|11|12|13|—

Mamoru released a gargantuan sigh of relief as he pushed himself to his feet. In the end, Usagi did not kill herself but resisted the evil machinations and emotional manipulation of Beryl. Of course she wasn't completely safe as she stood in the middle of the throne room and was standing dangerously close to the very leader of the Dark Kingdom. He needed to provide every bit of assistance he possibly could to her and he needed to do so immediately. He reached into his pocket and withdrew the red rose that powered his transformation to Tuxedo Kamen. After a bright flash of gold light the tuxedoed fighter appeared, his superfluous mask doing little to hide the fierce glare he directed at Beryl.

"Sailor Moon! Tuxedo Kamen!" Makoto shouted from across the throne room.

She, as much as the outer senshi and more than the two other guardian senshi, was thrilled to see them. She dashed across the room and stood next to Usagi while adopting a defensive stance. The blonde turned an incredulous eye to the brunette who only a short while ago had tried to kill her.

"What are _you_ doing?" Usagi disdainfully asked as she pointed angry eyes at Makoto.

"I'm doing what I can to make up for my betrayal of you," Makoto said with a more sullen tone, but without shifting her eyes from the gaze of her main opponent in Beryl. "I'm truly, _truly_ sorry for everything I did to you, and I'll do whatever it takes for you to trust in me and to consider me a friend again."

Usagi only replied by slightly tilting her head to the side and continuing the irate glower. She was still extremely distrustful of Makoto and felt she had no reason to immediately believe the apology until Mamoru interjected.

"She's being honest, Usagi," he said calmly. "When I talked to them and told them that they were being completely foolish for not accepting you as the princess, she was the only one to actually understand that and feel true remorse." The brunette punctuated his statement by giving Usagi a slow nod of her head.

Those words didn't immediately eliminate Usagi's harsh opinion of Makoto, but it did soften it considerably. It would be a slow process for her to completely forgive the senshi of lightning for first abandoning her and then attacking her with the horrible intent to kill. However, it comforted her to know that another one of the girls was willing to restore their friendship and to do the arduous work needed to accomplish that goal. Eventually she would have a serious conversation with all of the girls, but the time for that would be later, _after_ the fight.

As though on cue, Beryl lifted her hands and pointed her open palms at Usagi. A colossal red ball of odious energy, one that was almost as large as the wielder, rapidly formed in her hands. Without any spoken incantation the ball dashed from her hands and sped toward the two senshi. Makoto understandably was apprehensive, not just for her sake but for that of her princess, as she saw the sphere swiftly approach. Usagi, on the other hand, was absolutely calm as she grasped the Moon Stick that materialized in front of her. A bright white light emanated from the wand as it erected a shield of pure energy to deflect the attack, which was exactly what she expected to occur. What she did not anticipate was keeping her footing as the shield completely redirected the attack around both her and Makoto. The last time she had seen an attack that powerful she was blown clean across a fairly large room.

"What was that?" Makoto asked in awe once she recovered from the fright of almost being hit by the potentially lethal blast.

"My shield," Usagi nonchalantly replied.

The blonde then quickly and yet methodically surveyed the room. The ability to rapidly determine her surroundings was one of the skills she had developed in her training with Luna. It wasn't perfectly honed, and she longed for more practice, but even then her ability was far superior to that of any of the guardian senshi. The outer senshi, who naturally were better at combat tactics despite never having applied them until that evening, were on par with her in that regard. She observed them taking strategically beneficial positions along the far wall. Setsuna stood immediately next to the massive hole in the rear door to prevent anyone from exiting or ambush any reinforcements that tried to enter. Haruka and Michiru flanked the green-haired woman, the sandy blonde positioned to the right where she was closer to the princess, and her lover hugging the wall on left side of the room. Usagi's brow furrowed and she tilted her head slightly in confusion as she had never seen those three senshi before, although they did appear vaguely familiar to her. As she continued to scan she saw the Dark Kingdom generals counter the movements of the outer senshi with their own maneuvers. Sazaratha slid to the side of the room occupied by Michiru while Kunzite took the other, both in locations very close to the growing masses of steel blue-suited guards flooding the room from the alternate doors and rushing the throne. Zoisite ran to the center of the room, very close to the two people the trio clearly intended to attack first. That was the situation against which Usagi had to rapidly construct a plan of attack.

"Go grab Minako and Rei! Hurry!" Usagi ordered Makoto while she leaped high over the column of sentries rushing their way up the steps of the throne platform and landed in the back of the room.

Makoto momentarily was astonished by the physical prowess Usagi displayed and thus stood frozen with a blank stare. She quickly shook herself to regain her focus and jumped from the platform and sprinted over to two senshi who stood awkwardly in the middle of the room and, as a result, were completely exposed to a three-pronged attack. Each of her strong hands grabbed a girl and roughly threw them to the ground, away from the explosion of white light that erupted from their previous location. Had she departed a second later, Rei and Minako would have taken direct hits from all three generals.

"Don't just stand there looking like complete idiots!" Makoto angrily admonished her fellow senshi and former friends. "Go do something to help your princess!"

Rei and Minako did not know whether to be angry at Makoto for treating them so harshly or to be thankful to her for saving their lives. For her part, the raven-haired girl was still quite irritated at the brunette for their previous fight, one that left Minako in far worse condition. However, the primary reason for their disagreement vaporized before their very eyes. No longer was there any doubt that Usagi was the princess. That reality clearly stunned Minako, but her lethargy also could be blamed on her head wound and the lingering effects of Sazaratha's attack. On the other hand, the young shrine maiden was completely floored by the revelation. Indeed, until Makoto's disruption of her thoughts, she was completely oblivious of the battle raging around her. Her mind was fixated on the absolute horror she felt when she found out she had tried to kill the very princess she promised to defend with her life. Not only that, but she hated the girl with an unhealthy passion. She loathed her, but for what? For an accident that the girl apologized for many times in the past and even once again that evening? The incident for which the girl—her princess—almost killed herself as atonement because she completely absorbed the blame? How could she justify her identity as a senshi after that?

"Thanks, Makoto," Minako softly said with a gentle nod of her head, startling Rei from her contemplative reverie.

The blonde then rose to her feet and looked around the room in a vain attempt to make sense of everything happening around her. Everything was happening far too hectically for her mind to digest. Who were those three strange and yet obviously powerful senshi again? What were those pink balls that Usagi fired from her wand at Kunzite? What were those things that leaped from the general's body afterward? The throbbing headache only served to make matters worse. Through the pain she did see that Zoisite was standing way too close to her and was lifting his hand in her direction again, apparently to send another attack. Her instincts told her to duck, and that's exactly what she did as the green orb of negative energy flew over her head and smashed into the wall behind her, fracturing the façade and raining debris over the heads of the guards and a certain other blonde in that area of the room.

—|1|2|3|**4**|5|6|7|8|9|10|11|12|13|—

After landing near the door, Usagi turned and spoke to the tall senshi holding the key-like staff. "I think you're Sailor Pluto. I don't know who you are in real life, but thanks for helping me," she said quickly but not enough to hide her grateful tone. "Anyway, I need you all to help me separate Kunzite from the other guys and keep them away from me while I attempt to heal him. Tell the others the same thing."

"Very well, your highness," Setsuna dutifully answered. "By the way, my name is Setsuna Meiou," she hurriedly added.

"Very nice to meet you, Setsuna," Usagi said with a welcoming nod before leaping off to her right, in the direction of Haruka and her intended target.

"You're Sailor Uranus, right?" Usagi intently asked, her eyes quickly glancing up at the much taller blonde before turning back to her target.

"At your service, your highness," Haruka proudly replied.

"Do you think you can take the silver-haired guy on one-on-one for a brief moment while I charge my attack?" the pigtailed blonde asked.

A large smirk appeared on Haruka's lips and she placed her hands on her hips. "I'd thought you never ask," she said confidently, if not smugly.

"Thanks. Just don't kill him," Usagi promptly replied with a brief grin and curt nod. She then took a few steps away from Haruka and closer to the wall, her back almost touching the cold surface. Her eyes slid shut and she slipped into deep concentration, willing her body to provide the necessary energy she needed to heal Kunzite and extract from him the souls he captured.

—|1|2|3|4|**5**|6|7|8|9|10|11|12|13|—

An expression of disgust covered Sazaratha's face as she saw her attack barely miss her two targets. She had all but dominated the two in her earlier encounter, nearly killing Minako with an attack that was strongly inspired by the senshi of love's trademark weapon. If it weren't for the timely interruption by Beryl, she would have finished the job. However, her boss wanted them alive and brought to the throne room, and so she held back.

"I should have killed them earlier and been done with it," she exasperatedly mumbled under her breath moments after the brilliant flash of white light formed from the collision of her attack with those from the two Shitennou generals. The two senshi were shoved to the floor by a third she hadn't seen personally but through her briefings knew to be Sailor Jupiter.

"I guess I'll just have to finish them off myself," she haughtily uttered to herself as she lifted her hands above her head. She was prepared to repeat the same attack that brought Minako to the edge of death. The brilliant gold sphere readily formed at her fingertips, its white lightning cackling with ominous potential. Before she could initiate the attack she heard the silky retort from an elegant turquoise-haired senshi standing at the edge of her field of vision. It indicated that she might have spoken a little louder than she probably intended.

"That would be quite the achievement for you, considering you're outnumbered three to one," Michiru derisively stated. "How about I make this a fair fight for you?"

"Oh, _please_. You have no idea how powerful my attack can be," Sazaratha replied with absolute disdain. A wry grin tugged at her lips. "But it looks like you're begging to find out firsthand, and I _certainly_ wouldn't want to disappoint you," she added in a more sardonic tone.

Michiru lifted her hands above her head and swiftly created the radiant cyan sphere that held the power of her attack. Instead of flinging the sphere at her opponent, she held back and allowed the sphere to gather more energy. For some reason she felt that it would benefit her to wait.

"I'm happy, because I always hate being disappointed," Michiru said with dripping sarcasm. "So, let's see what you have to offer."

"With pleasure," Sazaratha curtly responded.

In her arrogance she was fixated on dominating the senshi of the sea and she briefly lost track of what was happening with the three girls closer to her. She failed to see the senshi in the orange skirt lift herself to her feet, slowly look around in confusion, and then leap to the floor. If she had done so, then she would have observed much earlier the massive green blast of negative energy that raced directly toward her head. Much like the senshi she battled, she was not immune to her own attacks or to those of her allies. With prior warning she could have deftly stepped away from the attack. However, she did not notice it until it was almost too late to avoid the lethal strike. She followed her natural instinct to duck and in doing so she lost control of the menacing gold orb. It vaporized as the energy returned to her body, leaving her a sitting duck.

"Deep Submerge!" Michiru yelled as she took advantage of her opponent's distraction. Her own potent orb rushed through the air and landed a direct impact on the crouching blonde, forcefully knocking her into the wall of the raised platform. Her painful shriek indicated that the attack did not knock her unconscious, but for a few precious moments she would not be a threat to her or to her princess.

—|1|2|3|4|5|**6**|7|8|9|10|11|12|13|—

At the same time her princess was preparing her attack, Haruka took a few paces toward Kunzite. She was careful not to approach too closely as she did not know what kind of weapons he may have possessed. It was obvious that he used energy attacks as he demonstrated barely a minute earlier, but that didn't mean he wasn't armed. She raised her hand to form the powerful ringed globe of energy she typically threw at her opponents. While the sphere grew in size she saw Mamoru's tuxedoed figure leap from the platform and toss a series of steel-tipped roses at both the crowd of guards on that side of the throne and at Kunzite. It wasn't a particularly formidable attack, but it was effective as it distracted the general just long enough for her impending strike to land unimpeded.

"World Shaking!" Haruka shouted as she released the massive sphere of gold energy into the ground in the direction of the unaware general. By the time he realized he was the target of the attack there was nothing he could do to evade or deflect the blast. The impact shoved him backward by a few feet and he fell to his knees in obvious pain. Without a moment's hesitation that attack was succeeded by Usagi's far more magnificent assault.

"Moon Healing Escalation!" Usagi slowly yelled with extraordinary passion. She moved the Moon Stick in front of her body in a sweeping circular motion. At the end of the movement the Silver Crystal lodged within the wand emitted a combination of bright pink and white lights moments before releasing several pink balls of pure energy. Much like her first use of the attack, every single one of the glowing orbs hit its target. Unlike that initial attempt, she received a much different and far more desirable result.

A blindingly bright white light emanated from Kunzite's kneeling figure after the last sphere of warm, positive energy struck his body. A shriek of agony escaped his lips as the princess's energy eradicated the last vestiges of the evil curse that had dominated his being and his personality. Afterward, he felt merely felt remarkable calm wash over him as the white aura slowly changed to a pale blue halo. One by one, luminescent gold orbs shot out of his body and floated high above the ongoing battle. They slowly drifted toward the person who freed them from their imprisonment, clustering around a relieved and exultant Usagi. The orbs progressively morphed and reverted to their original forms. Three of the figures, two women and a black cat, Usagi immediately recognized and was beyond thrilled to see alive and well once again. A fourth figure, a person she only vaguely recognized because of the general's offhand remark, was being vigorously hugged and kissed by one of the initial three beings. The other eighteen orbs transformed into people, all girls or young women, she didn't personally know but nonetheless was overjoyed to see rescued. She returned her attention to the loudly purring feline, the one she wanted to see the most.

"Luna!" Usagi yelled ecstatically as she bent to her knees, lifted the cat into her arms, and cradled it gently to her chest. Luna snuggled closer to her charge and merrily purred, grateful for her rescue but also extremely cautious not to reveal to the strangers surrounding her that she could speak.

"What's going on?" one of the unknown women shrieked in a combination of horror and perplexity.

"I have no idea," frightfully answered a tall woman with long, wavy brown hair. She paused and her fearful expression faded when her eyes spotted a mysteriously familiar pigtailed blonde. She knew she hadn't seen the stranger before, but a part of her mind told her the girl looked remarkably similar to her lovely and all-too-cute Usagi-chan. She hesitantly approached the golden-haired senshi and was about to speak to her but that lovely girl made the first remark.

"You're alright, Mariko," Usagi said calmly and with joy in her voice. "You may not know who I am, at least not yet, but I assure you everything will be just fine."

Mariko blankly stared at the girl and her pleasant sapphire-blue eyes for a second before a tremendous warm smile overtook her lips. "For some reason, I strongly believe you're absolutely right," she evenly replied.

Usagi gently nodded before a veil of seriousness covered her face. "Now, we need to get you all out of here and to safety. Could you and Azusa round everyone up and send them to where that green-haired woman is standing?" she asked with a sober tone.

"I'll try my best," Mariko said, giving the girl a resolute nod before turning away to find her older friend and associate.

Meanwhile, Usagi sprinted to Setsuna's position near the door, ignoring the gawks from the recently liberated civilians and those from some of her own senshi. Most of them never realized a human being could move so quickly, and the select few that did doubted until that moment that Usagi was among that rarified group.

"Setsuna, I'm pretty sure you found a way in, so could you lead those people out of here?" Usagi asked with a rapid cadence to her voice as she let Luna free from her soft grasp.

The princess looked to the middle of the room and saw her three former friends—one of them regarded slightly better than the other two—pushing themselves to their feet. At the same time she saw a brilliant cyan orb fly behind the trio and smash into an unusually beautiful yet patently evil blonde.

"Can you take them with you?" she quickly added as she pointed at the three senshi.

The tall senshi briefly considered arguing the point of how she and her fellow senshi arrived in the cavernous Dark Kingdom, but she abandoned the point and instead dutifully nodded her head. She knew it would be extraordinarily useless to debate her princess's request when there were innocent people in mortal danger. Besides, the crux of her order was simple enough: move the victims to safety. Whether that meant out of the Dark Kingdom or just far enough away from the throne room to where they wouldn't be noticed and attacked was her prerogative.

"Absolutely, your highness," she evenly replied as she began to run to the middle of the room. "Tell Uranus and Neptune that I'm going toward the control room. They'll know what I mean." Usagi slightly tilted her head in confusion, unaware of what she meant by 'control room,' but proceeded to do exactly that.

—|1|2|3|4|5|6|**7**|8|9|10|11|12|13|—

A pall of horror and fierce anger fell over the red-haired woman's face as she found her attack readily deflected by the loathsome blonde's shield. The fact she could produce the shield did not surprise her one bit as she was intimately familiar with the princess's capabilities, a result of her debriefing Kunzite after his solo battle. From the general's experience, she knew that the shield protected the princess from the magical effects of a blast, but an attack with sufficient force should still knock the girl down or send her flying. So she was stunned when neither of those occurred when she delivered an attack far more powerful than any Kunzite used against that horribly infuriating opponent. She prepared to send another attack at her primary adversary, but before she could even begin to gather the requisite energy the blonde had leaped away from the platform and to the other side of the room.

"Damnit!" Beryl loudly cursed as she stepped forward to begin her pursuit. However, she was intercepted by the small contingent of her guards that managed to enter the room and climb up the platform.

"Stay back, your highness!" one of the steel blue-suited guards shouted in a deep, masculine voice. His possession of a red-hilted sword, along with the unique red trim of his jacket, indicated he was the unit's overall commander.

"Move! Get out of my way!" Beryl furiously shouted at him as he and a few of his halberd-wielding subordinates blocked her path. Yet he refused to budge or order his men to disperse.

"I cannot allow you to place yourself in harm's way, your highness," he firmly replied. "Doing so violates your standing orders to protect you."

Beryl sighed in frustration but knew the man was correct. She left written orders for her personal guard to defend her at all costs. A part of that instruction was that they ignore any verbal order from her that would increase her risk of injury or death, a section she included to prevent her from doing anything rash. It was a move that made perfect sense at the time. She was fortunate to find people so loyal to her and willing to execute her commands, but that loyalty had just become an irritating hindrance. However, without new written orders or a drastic change in the situation, they would not allow her to insert herself into the battle. Besides, they also witnessed her powerful attack rendered utterly useless.

Another group of sentries had spotted the tuxedo-wearing Mamoru and, immediately considering him a threat to their queen, aggressively surrounded him. Their raised swords and halberds were about to be lowered upon his head when they heard the yelp that interrupted them.

"Wait!" a flustered Beryl suddenly yelled. "Don't touch him! He's Endymion!"

The guards were aware of her fondness of Endymion, so when they learned that was Mamoru's identity they withdrew their weapons and slowly backed away from the raven-haired man. That gave him an opening to leap into the air and pelt Kunzite and some of the incoming sentries with the strangest of all possible weapons: roses. The commander of the guard unit merely shook his head in disbelief before once again addressing the queen.

"Your highness, you need to get out of here," he said demandingly.

Beryl initially refused to leave until she observed the astounding power behind the attack the princess leveled at Kunzite. She instantly knew the general was lost to her, and she suspected the entire battle itself might have been a lost cause. As she stared at Kunzite's purification and the liberation of all the souls he had captured, she hastily planned an organized retreat. The last thing she was going to do was lose the last bit of advantage she had over the princess and her senshi.

"_Zoisite!"_ she yelled in her mind over the telepathic link she tried to initiate with the last available member of the Shitennou. Her attempt had failed due to the blond-haired general's distraction of launching an attack at three of the senshi, an attack that almost hit her subordinate Sazaratha instead. She repeated her mental cry a second time and received a response.

"_What is it your highness?"_ Zoisite hurriedly said.

"_You need to get out of here now!"_ Beryl instructed with a tone that conveyed sizable panic. _"Be sure to take—"_

Her connection to Zoisite was rudely interrupted by a means unknown to her. If she could see over the heads of the guards surrounding her she would have observed her former subordinate knock the general to the floor. Either way, she knew she had to leave before the princess took as much of an interest in her as she did Kunzite. Her body emitted a brilliant flash of red light as she quickly disappeared from the throne room and retreated to her secure personal quarters.

—|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|**8**|9|10|11|12|13|—

The bright flash of red light that flooded the room corroborated Usagi's initial deduction as she sensed a drastic reduction in the ambient dark energy that pervaded the chamber. She couldn't quite see the malevolent queen as she was obscured by the phalanx of guards that encircled and defended her. However, the drop in negative energy indicated that the queen had disappeared. If she still had the amulet the stone would have gone blank, but that little trinket was long gone, destroyed in her transformation to her true princess form. In any case she didn't need it anymore. She turned her eyes away from the elevated throne as she surveyed the room. Setsuna was ushering the other senshi to the main doors where the quartet could lead the liberated hostages out of the chamber. Meanwhile, Kunzite was locked in a contentious scuffle with Zoisite, one that attracted Mamoru's attention as the tuxedoed man moved to outflank the blond-haired general. Uranus suddenly rushed across her field of vision, apparently to assist Neptune as that exotic blonde found her footing once again.

Her eyes snapped back to the elevated throne as she noticed the blue-suited guards rushing down the steps on either side of the platform. Their very presence was a tremendous threat to the tactical advantage they had meticulously gained over the remaining evil general and that strange woman. Without those soldiers the senshi easily outnumbered and overpowered their opponents. She needed to eliminate them from the battle, but she strongly opposed killing them despite their allegiance to Beryl. She probed her mind in search of an attack that could handle the spread formation of approximately fifty aggressively advancing human adversaries. That's when she recalled the chanelas, or more specifically how she managed to heal the dozens of individuals who were entranced by the vile creatures.

She closed her eyes as she removed the tiara from her forehead and held the glowing gold and white disc over her hands. The much-appreciated benefit of her added powers was that it took significantly less time to energize her attacks. That new phenomenon, in addition to the fact he no longer was receiving outside assistance, explained how she could heal Kunzite without the extraordinarily long preparation of her previous attempt. After only a few seconds she knew the pink and white disc was ready to do its job.

"Moon Tiara Stardust!" Usagi shouted as she threw the luminescent disc into the air. As it traveled in a sweeping loop of the round chamber it released a fine pink dust over the guards, causing them to collapse to the floor but doing no additional harm to them. The disc returned to her hands a few seconds later and morphed back into the gold tiara.

"That's one problem solved. Now I just have to see what's going on with Kunzite and Zoisite," Usagi contentedly said to herself as she sighed.

—|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|**9**|10|11|12|13|—

Zoisite frowned as he saw the pesky trio of senshi evade yet another attack, but that did not discourage him. He knew at worst he could wear them down by forcing them to constantly elude his blows, but it was far more likely that he'd connect with one, especially considering his almost point-blank distance to them. A part of his mind even considered engaging in close hand-to-hand combat, but that was quickly vetoed by a glance at Sailor Jupiter. He remembered what she did to his massive youma. He was not nearly that large or physically strong. So, he quickly decided to send yet another blast of negative energy at the girls. However, before he could lift his hand he felt the familiar hailing of his queen over the telepathic link.

"_What is it your highness?"_ Zoisite answered with a rushed tone. He wanted the conversation with Beryl to be as short as possible as there were other, more important things for him to do, such as kill the weakened senshi. Besides, the last thing he desired was to stand stationary in the middle of a large battle while providing a large green beacon to his opponents.

"_You need to get out of here now!"_ Beryl anxiously shouted within his mind.

As she spoke he wondered what had made the otherwise confident, if not overtly haughty queen, so nervous and flustered. His pondering and the message Beryl tried to send him was interrupted by the very answer to his question. He felt the intense pain of a sharp jab right between his shoulder blades that forcefully knocked him to the floor. The sudden impact knocked the dark-blue sapping stone from his jacket pocket. He reached for the stone but found his hand pinned to the floor by a large black boot. His dark-green eyes followed the path from the boot up the gray trousers and turquoise-lined gray jacket before ultimately stopping at a furious glare of blue-gray eyes. Those fierce eyes belonged to the silver-haired man who impeded his attempt to snag the stone.

"Kunzite!" Zoisite shouted in irritation. "What the hell are you doing?"

His former colleague did not bother to answer Zoisite's question with a verbal retort but opted for a more physical response. He bent down to his knees, lifted the depraved general by the lapels of his jacket, and tossed him to the floor opposite from where the delicate stone sat in the middle of the room.

"Princess!" Kunzite exclaimed as he tried to attract Usagi's attention. However, she was occupied with her tiara for some reason and failed to hear him.

Zoisite took advantage of his opponent's distraction and charged at his former colleague, hitting him in the knees and knocking him to the hard floor. He tried to leap over him but found his progress suddenly stopped as a hand grabbed his ankle. His momentum sent him headfirst to the ground, and only his quick reflexes prevented him from striking his head.

"No matter what happens to me, the last thing I'll do is let you get that stone!" Kunzite harshly shouted at the younger general as he increased the strength of his grip on the ankle.

"Then I guess you won't mind if I do _this_," Zoisite derisively replied, his eyes narrowing ominously as he pointed his open hand in the direction of the man he formerly considered akin to an older brother. At the palm of his hand he assembled the sum of the negative energy he possessed into an enormous ball of swirling green and black. The sphere was far larger than anything he had ever created at the diameter of a large beach ball and was already within point-blank range of its target. All he had to do was fire off the attack and Kunzite would be no more.

—|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|**10**|11|12|13|—

Setsuna rushed to the middle of the room where she spotted the three guardian senshi in the process of pushing themselves to their feet so they could scurry away from yet another attack from the blond-haired general. She ran as quickly as she could but she didn't know whether it was fast enough to reach them before Zoisite fired off another blast of negative energy. With a battle as hectic as the one raging within that room it was pointless to try to calculate any probabilities of future events. The procedure required too much valuable time. Instead she would just do whatever she could within her capacity, using only the knowledge gained from her immediate observations, and let fate run its course. She was pleasantly surprised to find Zoisite's attack interrupted at the same time she met with the senshi.

"Get to the door!" Setsuna commanded as she grabbed Minako and began to yank her in the direction of the large opening. She motioned for Makoto and Rei to run with her, which they did just in time to avoid colliding with the flying Zoisite.

Three sets of eyes widened in shock when they saw the large group of people standing near the opening. None of them were familiar to any of the girls. Furthermore, none appeared as though they belonged in such a hazardous setting.

"Who are these people?" Minako innocent asked.

"They're the victims of Kunzite's attempt to blackmail Sailor Moon into submission," was a whispered voice that seemed to come from their feet. "Their souls were taken and integrated into his body so that Sailor Moon would have no choice but to leave him alive."

"Luna?" Makoto softly asked with a perplexed tone. "When did you get here?"

"I was one of those victims," Luna somberly replied before shaking her head. "Anyway, I can't talk for long, especially around civilians."

"I understand," Minako said with a nod that was emphatically mimicked by Makoto and more solemnly copied by Rei.

"So, what are we doing?" Makoto asked.

"I'm going to lead them out of this room and to someplace relatively safe," Setsuna calmly replied as she bent down and gently cradled Luna within her arms. "I need you three to provide cover and make sure nothing tries to attack us from the side or rear. Do you think you can do that for me?"

All three girls gave affirmative responses, with Makoto's being the most enthusiastic. Rei, who still held the vacant stare her eyes adopted the moment she saw Usagi's transformation, was more apathetic. Setsuna didn't mind the lack of eagerness from the raven-haired girl as she had a good sense of what troubled her. She wasn't concerned about Rei's mental state as long as the girl was effective enough as a senshi to protect the columns of people.

"Mars and Venus, I want you two to protect the flanks while Jupiter, you take the rear," Setsuna said evenly but with an authoritative tone. She then stepped through the hole and motioned for the crowd of people to follow her out of the room.

"We're going to have to move pretty quickly, so please let me know if you can't run at all or can't run very far," Setsuna informed the group.

None of the individuals protested or raised any personal concerns about the pace. Indeed, everyone was more than willing to leave that room as quickly as they possibly could. That was as close to a deadly confrontation of magically imbued beings as they ever wanted to be. So it was no surprise that they sprinted through the breach in the granite door, only slowing to not trip over the pieces of debris. Once the last civilian stepped into the hall the senshi exited the throne room and the group started their rapid progression toward the control room.

—|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10|**11**|12|13|—

The first emotion Sazaratha felt was astonishment at how fragile the human body was when it was smashed into a solid stone wall with tremendous force. Her entire backside ached and she felt a small lump on her head from its collision with the wall. She was dizzy and her vision was blurry, neither of which were terrific attributes for a warrior. No, in fact they were downright pathetic. That wasn't the form to which she was accustomed, but it was what she had to deal with at the present time.

The second thing she felt was intense anger and a strong desire for revenge against the person who left her in that state. Never had she received such a powerful blow from anyone during her entire time on Earth. In fact, the only being that made her remotely feel as hurt as she did then, whoever that random pervert was, assuredly could no longer have children of his own. What infuriated her further was that a senshi got the best of her and managed to lay a hit on her body. Or, at least, the body she inhabited for that duration. It was an exquisitely gorgeous body that she wanted to maintain in good shape and not see damaged any further.

And that led to her third sensation: pragmatism. As much as she wanted to avenge the humiliating strike from that turquoise-haired senshi, she knew it would have been better to wait. A tactical retreat as it was termed by some. She saw the brilliant white light from Kunzite that signified his purification and immediately knew that her chances of winning that battle practically were nil. However, it wasn't her intention to win the battle. Her scuffle with Neptune or even the overall sum of individual clashes meant nothing to her in the grand scheme. No, the victory she truly desired was far larger and more profound than anything her opponents could imagine. In fact, not even Beryl was aware of her true intentions, and she was quite happy about that. It gave her a reason to smile as she stood to her feet and knocked the gray dust from her otherwise indigo dress.

"Not too bad," Sazaratha derisively said. "I'd say it's certainly much stronger than anything I've seen from those three idiots—" she pointed to the trio of guardian senshi as she spoke— "but not nearly as powerful as any of my own."

"I wouldn't know, as you've yet to show me yours," Michiru replied with a lively smirk.

"Show you her what?" sounded the deeper pitch of Haruka's voice as she arrived at the end of the conversation.

"Nothing all that important, apparently," Michiru said playfully to her lover while keeping her eyes fixed on the apparently fuming blonde.

"Ah! Well, if that's the case, then what are we doing here?" Haruka teased.

"Awaiting your imminent demise, that's what!" Sazaratha said as threateningly as she could.

In reality, she had no intentions of staying within that room any longer. She saw the sapping stone that contained Ami's soul bounce along the hard floor and come to a rest near the middle of the room. It was well within her reach if she immediately turned and sprinted. Neither of the senshi knew what it was or had any understanding of its significance to them. However, she did not care about it, or about maintaining the fight beyond the bluster she presented to lull the senshi into a state of apprehension before her rapid withdrawal. Pursuant to that mindset she raised her hands above her head and formed once again the luminous gold sphere of negative energy. The senshi responded by taking a more defensive stance and preparing themselves for the possibility of evasive maneuvers. A wide smile telegraphed dark intentions, although not her true objective, as she slowly lowered the sphere in front of her body.

"Prepare to say goodbye!" she shouted as her body emitted a brilliant gold light.

Their eyes narrowed as the two senshi awaited the anticipated attack. Instead of the massive bolts of white lightning that the ominous sphere portended, or the chains of pure energy that actually would have come from such an assault, what they saw was a flash of gold light and then… nothing. Nothing at all, except for the wisp of black smoke that occupied the space once held by Sazaratha. It prompted the two senshi to rapidly scan their surroundings in case it was a diversion before a sneak attack from behind or above. However, they found no sign of their adversary anywhere.

"What was that?" a confounded Haruka asked as she and Michiru exchanged quizzical expressions.

"I have no idea," Michiru replied with uncertainty. "But, if there's nothing going on here, we might as well see what our princess is up to."

"That sounds like a smart plan," Haruka concurred.

"That's why you're with me," Michiru replied with a mischievous wink as she ran toward Usagi. Haruka merely groaned and shook her head before following her lover.

—|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10|11|**12**|13|—

Usagi heaved a contented sigh as she turned her eyes to the ferocious hand-to-hand brawl between the purified Kunzite and Zoisite. She saw that both of them were reaching for something on the floor but she didn't know what it was. Farther in the distance was the standoff between the two new senshi and that mysterious woman. Her eyes widened as she saw the blonde create a massive gold sphere above her head and slowly level it at Uranus and Neptune. Her heart screamed for her to run over there and do something to help them as she sensed the attack could easily overwhelm the two women. However, before she could move her feet the sphere abruptly disappeared along with the woman who held it. The scene confused her as much as it elated her, as she didn't know to where that esoteric enemy departed but she certainly wasn't in the chamber anymore.

A large spot of green at the base of her field of vision refocused her attention to the battle between the two generals. Zoisite had regained the advantage and was threatening Kunzite with the most fearsome attack she had seen him produce. The fact he was at point-blank range of her new silver-haired ally made her additionally apprehensive. What could she possibly do to save him? The blast would be on top of him before her hand could find the tiara on her forehead, so that was not an option. Furthermore, even though she held the Moon Stick in her hand, there was no attack she could call quickly enough to deflect the blast before it could hit Kunzite. Her eyes widened in horror as Zoisite's eyes narrowed in anticipation of his enemy's swift death at his hands.

Unexpectedly, she saw the tremendous orb of negative energy fly through the air, zipping past her head by a few feet. Her Moon Stick glowed white, fully prepared to erect the protective shield in case the blast itself or any debris from its impact with the wall behind her approached too closely. Fortunately, it wasn't needed as the sphere impacted the wall but left minimal debris, and the crescent returned to its normal gold color. A tiny smile came to her lips when she spotted the red rose sticking out of Zoisite's hand. Somehow the general had lost track of Mamoru's position and forgot about his unusual ability to disrupt his plans at the last possible second.

"What are you going to do now that you've wasted the last of your energy?" Kunzite derisively asked his former compatriot.

Zoisite had no answer to that question as he knew the former general was correct. He was out of energy and, at the moment, out of options. His last trump, the sapping stone, was beyond the reach of his hand, and the arrival of the two additional senshi meant he was woefully outnumbered as well as outgunned.

Kunzite calmly turned to face Usagi. "That stone over there contains the soul of Mercury… of Ami," he said softly with a combination of compassion and remorse as he pointed to the dark-blue gem lying near Haruka's left boot. "Your friend is not dead after all."

"I know," Usagi gently replied as she walked next to the mysterious senshi and picked the sapping stone up from the ground. The blue light emanating from the gem flared vividly as she cradled it to her chest.

"Even if you possess the stone there's nothing you can do to bring Ami back," Zoisite sneered in a last-ditch effort to discourage the princess.

"She will be back," Usagi forcefully replied. "She will have her life back, which is more than you would say if it were up to you!"

A huge lump formed in Zoisite's throat and for the first time he felt genuinely fearful for his life. As long as he had access to the energy reserves of the Dark Kingdom he knew he could always teleport away from danger. However, he had foolishly used up all his energy and not even that option was left to him. His only remaining option was to appeal to the princess's innate compassion and unwillingness to kill fellow humans by begging for forgiveness. Fortunately for him, Usagi was hesitant to effectively execute him even after putting her life through hell and Ami through an even worse fate. Instead she opted to do the same to him that she did to Kunzite. She walked to Mamoru and gently placed the sapping stone—Ami's very life—into his waiting hands before standing in front of the prone general and leveling the Moon Stick at his head.

"Zoisite, you of all people do not deserve the mercy that I am about to show you," Usagi said firmly and with less sympathy in her voice than she was about to demonstrate in her actions. "However, I honestly believe that there always is a better way to deal with the kind of evil you represent." She raised the wand above her head and prepared to perform the sweeping circular motion necessary to engage Moon Healing Escalation.

Suddenly a blindingly bright gold light filled the room. Standing in front of the throne was a smirking Sazaratha and the crackling gold sphere with which she recently threatened the two outer senshi. Being the pragmatist she was she didn't waste any precious time delivering a pointless speech and instead fired off the three chains of pure energy. In that same spirit of rationalism she targeted her attack at the one person in the room who represented the most immediate threat to her plans. The three chains whipped through the air faster than any of the senshi or their allies could respond and did not stop until they securely latched onto that one very surprised person.

"I'm sorry, Zoisite, but I'm afraid your time has come," Sazaratha mockingly uttered as she sent a single massive blast of dark energy down the chains and into his already severely weakened body. It was sufficient to cause him to violently thrash about the floor for a few seconds before lying frighteningly still on the cold surface.

"Why the hell did you do that?" Haruka angrily protested as she raised her hand above her head to create the ringed globe she would toss as a counterattack.

"You'll find out soon enough," Sazaratha said ominously as she abruptly disappeared from view in a brilliant flash of gold light and a modicum of black smoke.

Kunzite slowly approached the motionless body of the last Shitennou member in service with the Dark Kingdom. He bent down to place his ear next to Zoisite's mouth to listen intently for any telltale breathing sounds. He then placed a pair of fingers on the side of the man's neck in search of a pulse. There was no sign of respiration or a heartbeat. He solemnly shook his head as he stood upright. No questions needed to be asked as they already knew the answer. Zoisite was dead.

"I think it's time for us to leave," Usagi sadly whispered as she turned away from the lifeless body and slowly walked to the exit of the destroyed granite double-doors.

"Where are we going?" Michiru innocently asked.

"To where the others are located," Usagi replied. "I don't know where that is, but she said something about a control room."

"Ah, we know where that is," Haruka said excitedly as she momentarily gazed at her lover. "Just follow us and we'll lead you straight to them."

"Do you have a way out of here?" Kunzite intently asked as the group proceeded through the aperture within the set of doors.

"None that I know of," Usagi softly replied. "I don't even know how I got here in the first place."

"I guess we were hoping that there was some sort of portal or exit door to this place," Michiru dryly added.

"There is, but I strongly doubt you'd want to go that way unless you're well stocked in winter-weather equipment… or own a submarine," Kunzite deadpanned before adopting a more sober tone. "This base is located far beneath the ice caps and under the floor of the Arctic Ocean."

"I see…" Mamoru evenly interjected. "So the only way you guys can enter or exit is by teleporting."

"Correct," Kunzite said. He turned his eyes to Usagi. "That is how we brought you to here, Princess," he said with a hint of remorse.

"Usagi," the pigtailed blonde replied with a quiet yet determined voice. "You can just call me Usagi."

Kunzite slowly nodded before lowering his head. "I'm very sorry for the all pain I inflicted upon you as your enemy all this time," he sorrowfully stated.

"It's okay," Usagi responded as she looked up at him with a tiny but warm smile on her lips. "Beryl was controlling you and manipulating you with her curse. It wasn't something you could avoid even if you wanted to."

"I know, but I still feel terrible about it," Kunzite said.

"That's because you're good now," Usagi replied in a comforting voice. "You're a completely different person from the one who performed all those evil deeds. You may remember that past identity, but please rest assured that is not who you are anymore. You're a whole new person now… a blameless person. And the fact you're helping us right now is absolute proof of that. So, please, stay strong!"

He lifted his head as his despondent soul was buoyed by Usagi's encouragement. "You're right. You're absolutely right," he said more resolutely. "And by helping you defeat Beryl and the Dark Kingdom I can atone for the crimes I committed as her puppet."

"That's the spirit!" Usagi said cheerfully.

"And, in that spirit, do you mind telling us how we're going to get out of here?" Haruka said more bluntly.

Kunzite turned a wry smile to the sandy-haired blonde. "By teleportation, of course," he responded with a wink. "Which I guess is the same way you found this place, although I still don't know how."

"They travelled with me," Mamoru said as he pointed to the two senshi. "Zoisite came to take me to Beryl, but they were physically attached to me with, of all the things one could use, a few strands of thread."

Kunzite chuckled in amusement. "Well, that explains everything," he uttered. "I guess then we'll just do the same thing to leave but use a much more solid method of connecting to one another such as holding hands."

"It probably would make more sense for you to take all the civilians away from here separately," Usagi suddenly remarked.

"But how will you all leave?" Kunzite concernedly asked.

"I'm sure we have a way. If not, I'll use the crystal to wish us out of here," Usagi nonchalantly replied. None of the others knew about the lethal risks of using the Silver Crystal and she deliberately neglected to inform them.

"If you think that's the best way, so be it," Mamoru replied.

"If there's any way we can help you with that we'll do it without even a second thought," Michiru eagerly stated.

Usagi tilted her head, scrunched her nose, and furrowed her brow as she stared at the two senshi walking in front of her. They seemed awfully familiar to her but she couldn't quite locate within her mind how she knew them. She desperately wanted to ask them who they were, but she couldn't find an appropriate time to do so during the battle. However, the darkened hallways were far calmer than the throne room.

"Um… Uranus, Neptune…" Usagi tentatively began, "I know this next question may sound strange but… who are you?"

The two women simultaneously stopped walking and turned around to gaze upon the befuddled expression on Usagi's face. A warm smile appeared on Michiru's lips while Haruka preferred to display a mischievous smirk.

"I guess the senshi disguise spell works so well that not even my Koneko-chan can figure out who we are," Haruka teasingly replied.

Usagi's resplendent blue eyes widened in pleasant shock and her cheeks turned pale red as she happened upon two revelations. "Haruka?" she asked, eliciting an affirmative nod in reply. A few seconds passed before her next, far more revealing, question. "Y-you're a woman?" she asked hesitantly, her cheeks becoming even redder.

"She was since the last time I checked," Michiru naughtily responded before Haruka could speak, resulting in an equally furious blush from the short-haired blonde.

Usagi shifted her gaze to the turquoise-haired woman. "And you're Michiru, right?" she asked after a few more seconds of contemplation. An equally emphatic nod told her she was correct with the second guess.

A small sigh of disappointment borne from the startling truth that Haruka was not the gorgeous man she dreamed about but a woman escaped Usagi's lips. However, she was also thrilled that both women were senshi as it meant her meeting them was not a fluke or a singular event. It portended the possibility of her spending much more time with the beautiful and elegant woman and her equally handsome partner. And she still felt a strong desire to be with Haruka despite her gender, although it was no longer a yearning for a more romantic relationship. Because of that she was able to give a genuinely cheerful smile.

"I'm very happy it's you," Usagi blissfully replied. "Ever since I first met you I had a sense you two were special, but I didn't know how."

"Well, if it's any consolation to you, Usagi, we felt the same," Michiru said as she gave the pigtailed blonde an equally bright smile.

"Anyway, I think we should hurry up and get out of this place as quickly as possible," Haruka said as she changed the subject to something far more important. "I have a strange sense that things are not going to be quite so easy for us, especially as we get closer to that control room."

"By the way, what are you guys talking about when you say 'control room'?" Usagi innocently asked.

"I'm not exactly sure, but they seem to be connected to some youma incubation chamber where we found ourselves when we teleported here," Michiru answered with an uncertain tone.

"It's actually a youma development chamber where they produce youmas for various tasks," Kunzite added with more authority. "They have five such chambers, each containing one hundred youma incubation vessels, connect to a central control room from which they can monitor and adjust various settings related to their growth. As there are a total of four such control rooms, that means they have twenty chambers and two thousand youmas available at a time."

"A veritable army of youmas," Mamoru apprehensively noted.

"You might want to correct that number. There're only three control rooms as we blew up one of them," Haruka said smugly.

"I imagine that was the source of the rumbling we felt," Kunzite said. "The intensely dark energy feeding into the youma chambers must have been severely disrupted when you destroyed the room. Without the careful routing of the energy it flowed uncontrollably until that area was cut off from the main supply. The good news, however, is that that whole quadrant should be out of commission for a long time, if not permanently."

"So, what does Beryl want with so many youmas?" Mamoru attentively asked. "Doesn't that detract from her goal of reviving Metalia?"

"It is a tremendous risk to their overall goal, but I think the intention is that many of the youmas would be tasked with gathering energy," Kunzite replied. "Their gambit is that they would spend a significant fraction of dark energy now secure in the knowledge that, with so many youmas, they can easily recoup the initial expenditure and beyond."

"I see…" Usagi said with a dejected sigh. The prospect of more youmas hunting humans for energy did not excite her one bit.

The group turned a corner and walked a few steps into the dim corridor before abruptly coming to a halt. Even with the insufficient amount of light they could perceive that a major battle had occurred there. Scorch marks left by fire and electricity marred the stone walls, and there were also many concave impressions that must have been left by the forceful impacts of beings into the hard surface. The greatest and most sickening fear, one that each person immediately sensed, was that the craters may not have been left by the enemy.

"Over here!" was the shout they heard from one of the doors. Sticking her head and a fervently waving arm through the threshold was Makoto.

They ran to the opened door and into a moderately spacious room. It was a larger version of the room within which Haruka and Michiru hid in order to conceal their presence from Zoisite. Much like that previous room it was obvious that it was the living quarters of a human or possibly multiple humans.

"I'm glad you all are okay," Usagi said in a relieved tone.

"It looks like there was a fairly large battle outside," Mamoru said.

"We ran into five or six youmas while we were looking for a large enough place to hide," Setsuna calmly replied. "I think they were headed to the throne room to provide reinforcement. In any case, I don't think they expected us to be there, nor were they very happy to see us."

"Were any of the civilians harmed?" Kunzite asked.

"Fortunately, none of them were exposed to any danger. Jupiter and I held off the youmas while Mars and Venus led them here," Setsuna said.

"That's excellent news," Michiru said with a smile. The others nodded in agreement.

"Now, all we have to do is find out how to leave this place," Setsuna said before momentarily pausing and staring more intently at the silver-haired man. "I have a feeling that's the reason why you're here," she added as she gave a confident smile.

"That is true, but the princess wants me to take only the civilians," Kunzite evenly replied. "She plans for the senshi and the prince to travel separately." A concerned expression fell over his face. "The only practical way to leave here is by teleportation, but I've never seen any senshi use that capability."

"There is a way, but it requires all of the guardian senshi," Setsuna nervously replied. "Obviously, with Mercury's absence it would not work, but I have a strong sense that we'll find a way to leave here."

"I sincerely hope that is the case," Kunzite somberly uttered. He then felt a light tug on his arm and turned to see Usagi staring at him with a calm expression in her eyes.

"It's time for you to take those people back to where they belong," she said tranquilly as her lips were pulled into a warm smile. "I deeply appreciate all your help in rescuing Ami. It means the world to me."

"It truly is my pleasure, your highness," Kunzite said as he brought his right arm across his chest and bowed to the pigtailed blonde before joining the group of twenty-one civilians who already had joined hands to form an elongated oval.

The former leader of Beryl's Shitennou linked hands with two of the women he had captured during his bout of evilness. A tiny smile came to his face as he spotted at the other end of the oval a man who at first blush could have been mistaken for his twin. That man stood arm-in-arm with the tall and extraordinarily toned woman with chocolate-brown eyes who clearly was madly in love with him. As he called forth the massive amount of warm and positive energy required to teleport twenty-two individuals he reflected once more on that brunette. She was the one who inadvertently led him to the girl he once considered his ardent foe, the one he needed to destroy at all costs so he could achieve victory. Instead, he failed to kill the princess, and that turned out to be the biggest blessing he ever received, for in his defeat he achieved the greatest triumph: his salvation.

Usagi's smile became even wider as she saw the enormous group suddenly vanish from the room in a flash of gold light, leaving behind twenty-two wisps of white mist. She knew each and every one of them would be safe, at least for the time being. That allowed her to move to her next concern which, interestingly, was not how to leave the Dark Kingdom but how to extract Ami's soul from the sapping stone. She had a plan for exactly how to do that, but she knew she needed help from all of the senshi. That would have been problematic if the trio of senshi who no longer were her friends chose that particular time to be defiant. She needed to be absolutely certain she had the loyalty of those particular girls, even if she did not have their friendship. The tender expression that had graced Usagi's face disappeared when she turned to address her guardian senshi, replaced by a stern and almost frightening glare.

"Before I follow through with my intentions, I will ask each of you one very important question," Usagi said to the three girls, of whom two were extremely nervous and the last only moderately anxious. "Do you believe in me and trust in me as both a senshi and as princess?"

Makoto did not hesitate to give her answer and locked her eyes onto Usagi's narrowed counterparts as she spoke. "I absolutely believe in you and trust your judgment, your highness," she said resolutely.

Minako was the next to respond, although she didn't speak as fervently as the brunette. "I believe in you as princess, and I deeply apologize for my betrayal," she said solemnly with a lowered head.

Finally it was Rei's turn to give a reply, but the raven-haired girl was surprisingly silent. The magnificent display in the throne room solidified within both her heart and her mind the undeniable fact that Usagi was Princess Serenity. That was not the reason she was so tentative. Instead she wondered if she could trust herself to fully extinguish the immense hatred of Usagi she held up to that point. If she could not overcome that toxic emotion, despite whatever she might have thought about the blonde, it would be difficult for her to exemplify her faith in her princess by her actions. She took a deep breath and slowly exhaled it to steady her nerves before finally looking up at Usagi with sorrowful violet eyes.

"I'm sorry," she said in a voice that was on the verge of breaking. "For my pointless hatred of you I'm so, so sorry. Please accept my apology and believe me when I say that you have my full faith in you, your highness."

Usagi curtly nodded but did not make any other indication of whether she actually believed or accepted Rei's regretful words and sentiment. Instead she proceeded to explain to them her impending plan.

"Before we leave here, I want to rescue Ami," she said determinedly.

"Wait… wasn't Ami killed by Zoisite?" Makoto innocently asked, the question's sentiment echoed by the other two girls through their shocked facial expressions.

Usagi turned to Mamoru and gestured, indicating to him that she wanted him to display the dark-blue gem. "That stone contains Ami's spirit," she evenly replied. "It turned out that Zoisite didn't kill her but took her hostage. He did that to gain leverage over me and, as I firmly suspect, to isolate me from the rest of you. He wanted to exacerbate our already strained—no, nonexistent relationships despite my desperate attempt to fix them. And, unfortunately, it worked to perfection."

The three girls blanched when they heard Usagi's account. Yes, they were happy, if not absolutely elated to know that Ami was still alive even though she wasn't yet fully freed. However, they were appalled at the Dark Kingdom for manipulating their distrust of Usagi and even more disgusted at themselves for feeling such doubt and, in the case of Rei, hatred toward the most loving girl they would ever know.

"So the meeting in the park, where Ami said you would hand over the crystal to 'the princess'…" Minako tentatively uttered, her inflection of the last words plainly indicating the fact she no longer considered the princess a different person from Usagi.

"That was a plan hatched by both Ami and me to show you once and for all that I was the princess," Usagi said more harshly. "She had already apologized for doubting and abandoning me and had explained why you guys thought I wasn't the princess. She also told me everything you guys were planning to do to me." The lumps that formed in the girls' throats did not go unnoticed by the pigtailed blonde but she continued undaunted. "I don't know how the Dark Kingdom found out about the meeting or about my plan. I figure they've been spying on us for some time and so they discovered the plan despite my efforts to keep it secret."

Usagi took a few paces away from the guardian senshi and toward Mamoru. "Anyway, now that you know that Ami is alive, will you help me to bring her back?" she earnestly asked.

"Absolutely, your highness," all three girls replied almost simultaneously and with a sullen but resolute tone.

"Good," Usagi curtly said before closing her eyes and falling into a deep trance.

A few seconds later a brilliant explosion of pure white light flooded the room, accompanied by a ferocious blast of wind. After the glow faded a radiant Princess Serenity stood before the still-awed senshi. Her hands tenderly gripped the dazzling Silver Crystal and held it loosely to her chest. Just as soon as that occurred there was a flash of gold light that emanated from Mamoru's body. Moments later the black-and-white tuxedo he sported was gone, replaced by the dark uniform and magnificent armor of Prince Endymion. The six astounded senshi then linked hands as they formed an arc around the prince and princess.

"Is everyone ready?" Usagi asked as she held the crystal farther away from her body. A series of emphatic nods informed the princess that, indeed, they were prepared to rescue their fellow senshi and mutual friend.

"Dear Silver Crystal," Usagi solemnly prayed, "Please grant my wish and free from this diabolical stone the very life and spirit of the Senshi and Princess of Mercury. Please allow her body to be undamaged and her soul to be unharmed. Accept my energy along with the energy willfully granted by the senshi and princesses of the various planets." With one last thrust of the luminescent crystal into the air she shouted, "Moon Prism Power!"

Starting with Mars and ending with Pluto, each of the senshi gave a similar ardent yell pertinent to their planetary identity. As they did so, their bodies intensely emitted the appropriately colored light. After Setsuna's shout, the light from the crystal switched from white to bright pink, relaying to Usagi that it was prepared to fulfill her desire. All she had to say was the final incantation, and with that she wasted no time.

"Silver Crystal Power!" Usagi passionately shouted.

Upon her cry an enormous sphere of pink light enveloped the princess and the prince and a ferocious wind roared about the room, lifting and tossing about anything that was not sufficiently heavy or secured. The senshi ignored the flying debris and concentrated as diligently as they could on providing their precious energy to the princess. After a minute of time that felt much longer to everyone within the room, an explosion of blue light shattered the faint pink sphere. Standing in the light embrace of Mamoru's arms was the one person they had desperately missed, wearing her light blue-skirted senshi uniform and appearing exhausted. She slowly opened her eyes and looked around the room, glancing at the trio of familiar and palpably ecstatic girls and a few women she had never met before her gaze found the majestic pigtailed blonde.

"Usagi-chan? Is that you?" Ami asked in amazement. She had not witnessed the blonde's transformation to her newer princess form and was slightly taken aback by the stark difference in appearance.

Usagi nodded as tears of happiness pooled at the bottom of her eyes and threatened to spill over her eyelids. She tried to act restrained and regal but in such a moment of pure happiness she could not help but to run to the blue-haired girl and give her the tightest hug she could produce.

"I missed you so much, Ami-chan!" Usagi cried as the tears slid down her cheeks.

"What happened to me?" Ami asked in confusion.

"You… your soul was captured by Zoisite and held captive," Mamoru softly replied as he tenderly stroked his love's cheek with his hand. "But you're back now. You're finally back where you belong, with us."

"Mamoru…" Ami whispered lovingly as she let herself fall deeper into his embrace.

He bent down and gently kissed the top of her forehead. He then lifted her chin with his hand so that he could gaze into those lovely eyes once again. Ami pushed herself on her toes while Mamoru bent slightly so the two could share a delicate and yet passionate kiss. Their lips had only met for a few seconds before the couple heard a sharp cough emanate from their feet that abruptly interrupted their dreamy state. The two startled lovers looked down to see the black cat intently staring up at them with a stern expression on her face.

"I think there are some girls that would also be quite happy to see her, too, Mamoru," Luna said as the harsh look morphed into a wry smile.

Ami blushed as she carefully pushed herself away from an equally red-faced Mamoru and turned to look at the three girls who smile brightly at her and, yet, seemed slightly nervous. She hadn't seen any of them ever since the battle in the park and thus had no knowledge of its aftermath or of what happened to Usagi. However, from their apprehensive dispositions she could effortlessly deduce that whatever had occurred was not good.

"I'm glad to see you back," Makoto said as she gently grabbed Ami around her shoulders before pulling her into a deeper hug.

"We've missed you so much," Minako added as she joined in the hug. Rei was uncharacteristically silent but clearly felt the same emotion as she embraced the senshi of ice. They held each other for several seconds before finally pulling away with each girl satisfied that Ami actually did exist and that she knew and believed they yearned for her safe return.

Ami looked around the relatively austere chamber for a few seconds after she separated from them and could catch her breath. She spotted the three women standing closer to the back of the room, keeping a respectful distance from the heartfelt reunion.

"Thanks for helping me," she said pleasantly and with sincere gratitude. She then approached the taller, green-haired woman and extended her hand in greeting. "I think you might know my name by now, but I don't know any of yours," she stated evenly.

"I'm Setsuna Meiou, or as you can see, Sailor Pluto," the enigmatic senshi of revolution politely responded as she took the extended hand. "She's Haruka Tenou and the other is Michiru Kaiou," she said as she gestured to the respective women.

"I'm very happy to finally meet you," Michiru courteously said with a warm smile as she shook the girl's hand.

Haruka displayed a confident grin when she took hold of Ami's hand in salutation. "It is an absolute pleasure to meet you," she said. She opened her mouth to say more but a soft jab in her ribs from the annoyed turquoise-haired woman prevented her from displaying her customary flirtatiousness.

"Now that we've finally acquainted, I think it's time that we all leave here before any more youmas find us," Setsuna said more somberly.

"Youmas? Where are we?" Ami asked in perplexity.

"Somewhere within the middle of the Dark Kingdom," Usagi replied.

Ami nodded. That information didn't seem to fluster her, as apparently she had been through much worse already. The only question that was unanswered concerned their method of escape.

"How are we leaving here?" Ami plainly asked.

Setsuna stepped closer to the middle of the room. "With a method that hasn't been used by senshi in a long time called Sailor Teleport," she said composedly. "It's actually an easy way to travel long distances to a single location, but it requires all four guardian senshi."

Usagi gazed at Setsuna with a mournful expression on her face. "But what if we're not all going to the same place?" she intently asked.

"Then it does not work, unfortunately," Setsuna answered, her garnet eyes pointing down at the floor.

"Where are you going?" Ami questioned nervously.

"It's _we_, not _you_, and we're not going back to Juuban, that's for sure," Usagi matter-of-factly replied while turning an irate stare to the three girls she still did not consider her friends. The perceptive Ami readily caught the glare and became even more worried, as it was obvious there was a lot of tension between the three and Usagi.

"The plan didn't work, did it?" Ami carefully asked.

"Not at all," Usagi sadly replied as she shook her head. "That's part of the reason why we're leaving. The other reason is you need to be with your mother. I'm sure she'll be thrilled to see that you're alive after all. Also, I need to be with my family. Neither your mom nor my family is in Juuban at the moment but they're all together right now."

"Where are they?" Ami asked.

"In the city where your grandparents live," Usagi plainly answered.

Ami thought for a moment before nodding her head in understanding. She knew what Usagi meant by the statement, and she remembered that none of the other girls were knowledgeable of where her grandparents resided. From that she readily comprehended that the pigtailed blonde did not want the name of the city uttered aloud in their presence.

"Okay, but that still leaves the problem of how you're going to get to… wherever it is you're going, while most of us return to Juuban," Mamoru said impatiently.

"I may be able to use the crystal for that as well, so long as it doesn't take too much power," Usagi fretfully replied as she turned a nervous glance to the raven-haired man. "It took quite a bit of energy to save Ami, so I may not have enough strength remaining to activate the crystal a second time in such short order."

"Why are you going through all this trouble?" Michiru intently asked.

"You could just teleport with us to Juuban, and then allow Michiru and me to drive you and Ami to where you need to go," Haruka offered.

"I don't know if it's safe for me to go out there as they already know our civilian identities," Usagi hesitantly replied.

"Actually, it's all but impossible for them to know who we are," Setsuna said with a mischievous tone, "as Haruka and Michiru have been senshi for only a few hours. If the Dark Kingdom has been spying on the senshi all this time, then their civilian identities should be complete unknowns to them."

Usagi stared impassively and blinked a few times as she comprehended Setsuna's revelation. If that truly was the case, then maybe it wasn't such a bad thing after all for her to simplify things and go to Juuban. She would have to disguise herself lest the Dark Kingdom find her and track her to her destination. Fortunately, that was an easier task thanks to the return of her Disguise Pen.

"You know, Haruka-chan, I think I may just take you up on that offer after all," Usagi abruptly replied while shooting her a warm smile.

A low and ominous growl reverberated down the hall and into the room, easily capturing everyone's attention. It was accompanied by similar grunts and a few more human-like shouts. Apparently it was another search party of youmas, one possibly lead by more of the blue-suited human guards. It would only be a matter of time before they found the scene of the previous battle and would investigate the room for signs of the senshi.

"I think we have to leave, and quickly," an alarmed Luna said with a rapid cadence.

"Okay, everyone join hands," Setsuna instructed, and Mamoru and all of the senshi complied without any hesitation. "Now, combine your powers and think about the destination—"

"Where exactly should we go?" Usagi interjected. "Juuban is pretty large after all."

"What about my shrine," Rei said softly and with a guilt-ridden tone. "It's where everyone met before we all somehow arrived here."

"Fine," Setsuna replied calmly, but with a hint of irritation and a larger trace of panic in her voice. "Think about the Hikawa Shrine. Once our powers have successfully combined, a shout of 'Sailor Teleport' will allow us to leave."

Each person closed their eyes and slipped into deep concentration as they once again sent forth their energy, this time without a shout, and pictured the shrine within their minds. Their bodies emitted a faint white glow as the energy surged into the middle of the ring and soon expanded to encase them within a faint pink sphere. Setsuna was slightly distressed by that phenomenon as it differed from previous uses of Sailor Teleport, but she assumed that it was an effect of Usagi's form as princess instead of as senshi. None of them heard the loud shrieks from outside the door as the youmas and guards discovered the telltale signs of a pitched battle and rushed for the door. A few seconds later the door slammed open with a loud thud.

"Sailor Teleport!" the group cried out in unison. The resulting explosion of white light forced the guard to drop her sword and shield her eyes with her arms. When the light faded and the guard could uncover her eyes and peer about the room, nothing could be seen except disheveled bunks, random scattered personal effects, and a small crater where the senshi used to stand.

—|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10|11|12|**13**|—

Usagi slowly opened her eyes and carefully surveyed the initial scenery. For the first time in several hours those eyes saw something other than inky blackness or drab gray stone. Instead she spotted brilliant deep green and marvelous crystal blue that was decorated by the occasional wisps and tufts of white. A bright yellow orb hung in the distance, but its presence calmed her instead of unnerved her. A pair of black winged objects darted across her vision, but neither of them appeared threatening. She sighed contently as she brought her eyes down from her first view of the sky after what felt to her an eternity within the hellish Dark Kingdom.

"We're home," Ami warmly said as she broke Usagi's trance-like state.

"Not quite," Usagi somberly replied as she swiveled about on her heels before heaving a dejected sigh.

She knew the blue-haired genius had a point, but it wasn't complete. She was free. No, _they_ were free. Yet neither of them was close to safe so long as they were not at home. That place was not where they were standing: the courtyard of Hikawa Shrine. Their departure would not mark a victorious homecoming but only the beginning of not one but two long battles for her. The first was to eliminate the Dark Kingdom and save humanity from their inhospitable evil once and for all. That may have been the easier of the two conflicts, and if that was all she had to do she would have felt much happier.

Unfortunately, life was not so kind to her, for her second battle was far more personal and exceedingly more profound. She already could sense that it would be a long and painful struggle that would bring as much bitter disappointment as it promised boundless joy. However, it was vital that she succeeded as she did not know if she could live much longer while harboring such terrible emotions. She needed to have them, the girls who so horribly betrayed her and almost killed her, back as her friends. She needed those friendships to be true relationships based on respect, love, and trust of one another as normal girls and not mere loyalty of a shadowy soldier to an esoteric princess.

She heard someone call her name, but she opted to look up at the peaceful sky once again. After the revelation of her princess form there was an obvious shift in the girls' attitudes, but she wasn't so sure she could call it remorse, not for all of them. And even if they felt sincere regret, there was one last stumbling block. She would have to somehow overcome her immense personal suffering and anger borne from being callously abandoned and doubted and hated. As she glanced over her shoulder at the girls nervously standing behind her and awaiting her attention, she knew that last part very well might be the hardest struggle of all.

**-FIN-**


End file.
